Over the past week there has been something of a firestorm of news regarding allegations that Facebook has been manipulating their ‘Trending Topics’ section of the social network to suppress politically conservative topics. Getting on the trending topics sidebar can drive high levels of traffic and encourage a lot of discussion, which is exactly what politicians and political groups want.
Facebook came out quickly and denied that there was any wrongdoing with how the trending topics were generated. They did say that they would launch a full investigation to ensure that there was nothing unauthorized going on either, and thus far they haven’t found a thing.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg finally came out and addressed the issue himself just to make it 100% clear that the social network did not and would not ever hide trending topics due to political reasons. In his message about the topic he said, “Facebook stands for giving everyone a voice. We believe the world is better when people from different backgrounds and with different ideas all have the power to share their thoughts and experiences. That’s what makes social media unique. We are a global community where anyone can anything – from a loving photo of a mother and her baby to intellectual analysis of political events…”
He went on to invite influential political figures, including conservatives, to work with Facebook to make sure that this platform is working properly to foster effective dialogue on these essential topics. Bringing political figures closer to Facebook will, Zuckerberg seems to hope, improve posts and optimize the platform for effective discussion.
The bottom line, however, is that at least at this point there seems to be no evidence to support the claims that some people made regarding conservative political ideas or events getting removed from the trending topics on Facebook.
