Facebook now directly denies report of biased trends, says there’s no evidence

[jpak]

Source: Techcrunch.vom

Facebook is now strongly refuting claims that it suppressed conservative Trends after issuing a more vague and indirect PR statement earlier today about having neutrality guidelines.

Facebook has “found no evidence that the anonymous allegations are true” wrote VP of search Tom Stocky on the social network tonight at 9:30pm pacific May 9th, regarding a Gizmodo report from sources who said they were formerly on the team that chose what Trends appeared on Facebook’s site.

“Facebook does not allow or advise our reviewers to systematically discriminate against sources of any ideological origin and we’ve designed our tools to make that technically not feasible. At the same time, our reviewers’ actions are logged and reviewed, and violating our guidelines is a fireable offense.”

Update 10pm pacific, May 10th: This article has been significantly updated to reflect the new statement released by Facebook VP Tom Stocky directly refuting the claims of biased trends.

<more>

Read more: http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/09/facebook-workers/

[mtasselin]

1. whining

Every time a republican thinks that they are being persecuted it is always this make believe liberal media. They start whining like a bunch of school girls. Could it be that this persecution nonsense has run it's course and the American people have finally figured out this shit, I hope so.

[13Dogs]

4. Fake Persecution

Agreed. There is no organized suppression of conservative viewpoints. It's just that so few people believe the conservative bullshit anymore. That's what these Republican jokers don't understand. All the deception and lies they've been spewing for decades to get elected, has left them with a puny base of people not tethered very strongly to reality (about 20% of the population who are impervious to reason/logic and will vote Republican no matter what). The other 80% of us no longer have time for these regressive fools.
And then they complain that nobody listens to their rage filled ramblings. Conservatives equate rejection of their beliefs by the American people, with suppression and censorship, when actually its just a matter of people waking up to their manipulative BS and rejecting it outright.
Conservatives have always had an outsized profile relative to their actual numbers, because they own the media and project this large scale conservative movement when actually the numbers are quite small.
That's why they have to gerrymander and suppress the vote by setting up ridiculous hoops for voters to jump through. And if that fails, they rely on their electronic voting machines/tabulators to flip the vote as they did in Ohio in 2004. They can't win a fair election because their message appeals to less than 1/4 of the population (the elite 1%, who they grovel before, and the brain dead followers previously mentioned). It's all smoke and mirrors for the Republican party. They deserve to go down in flames considering all the damage they've caused since 1980.

[Ford_Prefect]

2. The most insidious rumour mill on the planet denies that it foments and promotes gossip????

Oh the Pathos, the elevation of the grand ennui has arrived.

[Nitram]

3. Um, are you saying Facebook starts and promotes rumors or that

users do?

[Ford_Prefect]

5. I believe both to be the case. In particular the design of Facebook "trending" is so transparent

the point makes itself. I don't mean that Facebook selects the specific rumors to promote. I think that the system which pays attention to the ideas and items that people are curious about, or interested in, or "like", must by its own nature result in elevating rumors to the same level of public awareness as substantiated fact.

On the evidence it is a system that can and has been used at times to distort the perception of so-called trending items by various groups of users. Clever scrubbing and spamming of the internet has also produced similar distorting effects.

[Nitram]

6. I'm afraid I'd have to disagree.

When I see a bogus meme on my FB feed, I often write a rebuttal. I guess the weak-minded might be influenced, but they'd be influenced by anything.

[LiberalFighter]

7. If that were true...

There would be very little conservative crap on Facebook.

[Democat]

8. Right wingers always think they are being persecuted

Just like Christmas is under attack.

[ToxMarz]

9. Yes, because that is what they would do if they could

So of course everyone else must be doing it. I can see them getting some O'Keefe type to put this out there in an attempt influence Facebook to artificially promote more conservative news so as to "prove" they aren't suppressing it.

[CountAllVotes]

10. Yeah right

They only dare to flood anything Bernie Sanders with something known as child pornography. Good damn job there ya freaks!

[Eugene]

11. Senate committee questions Facebook over news selection

Source: Reuters

Technology | Tue May 10, 2016 3:22pm EDT

Senate committee questions Facebook over news selection

BY AMY TENNERY

A U.S. Senate committee launched an inquiry on Tuesday into how social media website Facebook selects its news stories after a report that company employees blocked news about conservative issues from its "trending" list.

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation asked Facebook Chairman and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg in a letter to answer questions about the company's news curation practices and its trending topics section.

The investigation comes after Gizmodo reported on Monday that a former Facebook employee claimed workers "routinely suppressed news stories of interest to conservative readers," while "artificially" adding other stories to the trending list.

U.S. Senator John Thune, the chairman of the committee, told reporters Tuesday his primary concern was that Facebook may be engaging in deceptive behavior if employees meddled with what trending news was displayed.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-socialmedia-idUSKCN0Y12EU

[NYC Liberal]

12. I thought Repugs were all about the 'free market'

If Facebook wants to highlight certain stories over others, let their users decide if they like it or not.

[PersonNumber503602]

14. Yeah, wtf?

Even if Facebook was doing that, why would be something that requires a senate committee to look into? It's a private company!

[Demonaut]

13. this aint the IRS, who gave in to the bullying