Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other employees on Wednesday reassured representatives of conservative news outlets that the company will strive to make sure that the giant social media company doesn’t bury right-leaning news stories, and that it realizes the importance of staying neutral.
Zuckerberg invited more than a dozen conservative writers and leaders of right-leaning media groups for a meeting in California on Wednesday. The meeting was called after Gizmodo reported that former Facebook employees would make sure that news favored by conservatives was downplayed on the “trending topics” section of people’s Facebook newsfeeds.
Among those attending were TheBlaze’s Glenn Beck, Dana Perino of Fox News, senior Donald Trump adviser Barry Bennett and the Washington Examiner‘s Kristen Soltis Anderson.
According to Anderson, the meeting was “positive,” and participants were able to stress that they don’t want the government to set the rules for how Facebook handles news on its pages. At the same time, they said Facebook needs to be neutral in its approach to the news.
Anderson said Facebook agreed.
“I left the meeting feeling that Facebook is eager to be a marketplace of ideas,” she said. “They’re trying to navigate the tricky waters where humans are involved in helping fill gaps and where algorithms fall short.
“I, and others, emphasized that even well-intentioned humans are often unable to really pick up on their own biases, particularly if they’re in an environment like Silicon Valley that is overwhelmingly populated with left of center viewpoints,” she added.
She said the company also said there is an awareness that Silicon Valley is a liberal area of the country, which might make it hard to detect left-leaning biases.
Anderson said there were about two dozen people in the meeting, most of who were the conservatives the company invited. She also said the power went out in the building during the meeting, which led to a “sweltering” gathering.
