Facebook Workers Reveal News Filtering Scheme; Popular Sources Favored?

First Posted: May 10, 2016 05:37 AM EDT
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Facebook employees shed light on how the social media network filters out and suppresses its conservative news stories from the site's new trending news section. News is essential to everyone to keep themselves updated regarding certain topics that affect their lives. With social media taking over society, it has been a tool to convey information. However, former

Claims from former Facebook employees known as the new curators surfaced the internet as it has been said that they were instructed to inject filtered stories on the site's trending news module. That stories posted are being selected, where at one point included news that were not trending at all. These former curators were also told not to include any news related to or about Facebook.

These actions implemented on Facebook's news section reflects how the traditional newsrooms work, where news are carefully selected imposes biases of its contractors and the company itself for protection.  As much as Facebook claims that the news featured are those that have recently trended on Facebook, former curators says likewise.

There is still an uncertainty of both sides claims. In a report by Snopes.com, they stated that a certain tech blog mentioned unidentified contract workers who claim that Facebook actually censors conservative content. In the same blog, it was also reported just days prior to the great reveal that Facebook's curation process almost always favored credible sources rather than those from liberal ones.

Being bias over certain news articles is not a new issue at all as it has existed for years and somehow practiced by different news companies to ensure the quality of the information they disseminate.

Facebook's greatest problem in the case is the fact that they are a powerful broadcast tool that sells itself as one neutral feed. With the recent claims, it has appeared that its liberal biases have played a vital role in shaping what the readers encounter, GQ reported.

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