The National Newspaper Publishers Association, which represents “black-owned media companies,” is calling on regulators to crack down on Facebook’s practice of linking to articles
In a blog post this weekend, the group said Facebook’s ability to decide by “algorithmic fiat” which stories succeed is “unlike any power a media company has ever had before.”
“Hundreds of newspapers have disappeared in the last 15 years and readership is on the decline. No newspaper is immune from the migration of readership to online platforms, dwindling ad revenues, fragmented audiences and even reduced attention spans,” said the post, co-authored by organization president Benjamin Chavis and chair Denise Rolark-Barnes.
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The trade group, which says it represents 200 black-owned media companies in the United States, notes that according to one study, Facebook drove 43 percent of traffic to the top 400 sites last year. “Like many other publishers who have recently written on Facebook’s growing power over the media and what Americans read, we too are alarmed with one company having such dominance in news aggregation.
“Online hubs like Facebook are able to engineer which stories catch on,” the authors add. “And they’re able to decide by algorithmic fiat, which bylines, viewpoints and subject matter is promoted to the masses.”
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They suggest that Facebook is opaque so it can operate free of regulation, and is potentially discriminatory. “What’s more, we don’t know how Facebook’s operations work. The tech company isn’t transparent in its methods. So we don’t know whether the viewpoints of black publishers are heard or if there is a bias against our views.
“Without knowing how Facebook’s ‘trending topics’ or other algorithms are used in promoting stories, the owners of black-owned newspapers, magazines and other media are left only to wonder why the stories our outlets produce are relegated to the margins — if they are acknowledged at all. Our readers are at the mercy of powers unheard and unseen as never before,” they add.
The authors called for regulators to find a way to limit Facebook’s power. “It is time regulators took a hard look at Facebook and its news aggregation and promotion practices in an effort to bring some much needed transparency to the new media king,” they wrote. “The democratization of the media could be on a collision course with decidedly anti-democratic and arbitrary forces. Think of the proverbial tree that falls silently in the forest because no one is there to hear it. Will Facebook have the power to allow entire forests to fall without much notice?”
Facebook has attracted increased scrutiny in recent days over its news aggregation service, both for the large amount of traffic it directs and over allegations of bias. Reports that the site tries to avoid linking to conservative outlets prompted Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., to demand in May that it turn over information about its internal mechanics.
