Where Facebook and journalism intersect [Updated]
The social media outfit is in hot water after sources revealed how it determines content for the site’s ‘trending section.” Here’s how reps responded.
A group of journalists that were reportedly hired to work on the tech company’s “trending news” section last year, are now calling their experience “degrading.”
This week, several news outlets say that those same journalists—who were hired to give Facebook news credibility—routinely suppressed stories about conservative leaders and issues.
Gizmodo first reported on both stories, and the details are troubling for anyone who believes journalists should practice impartiality.
Former Facebook news curators—that worked as contractors—told Gizmodo that conservative topics were suppressed on the site and conservative-leaning websites such as Breitbart, Drudge Report and Red State were pushed down in the rankings.
“Every once in a while a Red State or conservative news source would have a story,” one source said. “But we would have to go and find the same story from a more neutral outlet that wasn’t as biased.”
The non-biased outlets—those trusted publications that the curators were allowed to feature—included The New York Times, CNN and the BBC.
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