According to former Facebook employees, the social media platform "routinely suppressed news stories of interest to conservative readers," Gizmodo reported.
Gizmodo reported that "several former Facebook 'news curators'" said that stories about Mitt Romney, Rand Paul, the right-wing CPAC gathering and other conservative topics were filtered and sometimes ignored altogether from Facebook's Trending Topics section, which appears on the upper right hand corner of user's home pages.
The Trending Topics section on Facebook is different for everyone; the stories that appear are generated by where the user lives, what the user routinely searches and other factors. Facebook uses an algorithm to surface popular topics at any given time, and a team of curators then tailors the list to meet particular standards.
The site's article did not name any of the former Facebook employees.
"In other words, Facebook’s news section operates like a traditional newsroom, reflecting the biases of its workers and the institutional imperatives of the corporation," Gizmodo reported.
Facebook denied the allegations in a statement.
"We take allegations of bias very seriously. Facebook is a platform for people and perspectives from across the political spectrum," a Facebook spokesperson told Buzzfeed. "Trending Topics shows you the popular topics and hashtags that are being talked about on Facebook. There are rigorous guidelines in place for the review team to ensure consistency and neutrality.
The spokesperson continued: "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. These guidelines do not prohibit any news outlet from appearing in Trending Topics."
.@facebook statement regarding allegations of suppressing trending conservative news stories. pic.twitter.com/bDgxS7Rq48
— Ema O'Connor (@o_ema) May 9, 2016
Read more on Gizmodo.
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