Facebook says 'no evidence' of political bias in Trending Topics
Facebook has strongly denied claims that it manipulates trending topics to reflect a liberal agenda and gives more prominence to left-leaning media.
Tom Stocky, the vice president of search at Facebook, said: “I want to address today’s reports alleging that Facebook contractors manipulated Trending Topics to suppress stories of interest to conservatives.
“We take these reports extremely seriously, and have found no evidence that the anonymous allegations are true.”
“Facebook is a platform for people and perspectives from across the political spectrum. There are rigorous guidelines in place for the review team to ensure consistency and neutrality. These guidelines do not permit the suppression of political perspectives. Nor do they permit the prioritization of one viewpoint over another or one news outlet over another.”
Former Facebook workers told the tech blog Gizmodo that the editing process reflected an “absolute bias” against right-wing news sources.
Their claims of bias appear at a sensitive time, ahead of the most bitterly contested US presidential election for a generation and weeks after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg publically criticised the policies of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
The former employees also allege that the social media site forced hard news topics - such as the #Blacklivesmatter campaign - to trend and suppressed news about Facebook itself.
