Facebook denied a report Monday that its employees were intentionally suppressing conservative political content, and said in a statement that an algorithm is responsible for which topics appear in the social network’s “trending” space.
“There are rigorous guidelines in place for the review team to ensure consistency and neutrality,” the statement said. “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.”
A report on Monday by the technology blog Gizmodo said the people responsible for updating Facebook’s “trending” news feature regularly omitted stories about politically conservative topics.
So-called news “curators,” tasked with highlighting news items that are being frequently shared by Facebook users, would often bypass including any news that dealt with Republican politics or conservative issues such as GOP candidates or high-profile conservative activists, according to the report.
“Depending on who was on shift, things would be blacklisted or trending,” a former curator told Gizmodo, though he was not identified in the report.
