Facebook Doesn't Have to Be Fair

[applegrove]

Facebook Doesn't Have to Be Fair

by Robinson Meyer at the Atlantic

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/05/facebook-isnt-fair/482610/

"SNIP...........


And perhaps it really does. A series of Gizmodo reports have raised new information about how the company’s “Trending” module works. “Trending” is the list of popular headlines that appears in the top right of Facebook.com; it also appears under the search bar in its ubiquitous mobile app. While many users believed that this module was compiled algorithmically, Gizmodo (and now The Guardian) have revealed that humans, working on contract for the company, guide its creation every step of the way. What’s more, these workers (often Ivy-educated twenty-somethings) “routinely suppressed conservative news,” according to the allegations of one former employee who talked to Gizmodo.

Facebook bills its platform as transparent and apolitical, so this could be disastrous (or at least embarrassing) for it. But as Kashmir Hill writes at Fusion, there isn’t yet definitive evidence that Facebook actually did routinely suppress conservative news. Instead, former employees and leaked corporate documents indicate the workers were told to to amplify news and stories from traditional or name-brand news organizations like CNN, Fox News, and The New York Times. At the same time, they were advised to avoid floating rumors or conspiracy theories from newer, less reliable, and ideologically slanted sites like Newsmax. (The Guardian and Gizmodo reports disagree about whether Breitbart, a far-right and factually unreliable news site, was a “trusted source” or a specifically untrusted one.)

Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s CEO, has now said that in an internal investigation, the company could find no evidence of story suppression. And in some ways, you could see the company’s editorial hand in “Trending” as part of its longtime emphasis on distributing “high-quality content.”

But we might know more later this month. Senator John Thune, a Republican of South Dakota, has formally asked Facebook to answer questions about its neutrality in running the feature. Company representatives have also been asked to meet with staff from the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.


.............SNIP"

[scscholar]

1. I can tell when Bernie posters are banned...

and their accounts deleted that they aren't fair, but it is their right.

[Midnight Writer]

2. "Transparent and apolitical"? Sounds like "Fair and balanced".

So why isn't Fox News being targeted by Senate Republicans?

Because it is a private company and has no obligation to present a balanced view of anything.

Corporations are people, remember. Senate Republicans have no right under their own doctrine to question the free speech of anyone, now including corporations.

[cheapdate]

3. Got that right!

[Baobab]

4. And if they are from other countries, increasingly they can sue under ISDS when laws change.

The new tort of indirect expropriation.

ISDS is "investor state dispute settlement"

[JHB]

5. This whole story has smacked of Wingnut Persecution Complex

"Liberal bias" = failure to push a RW agenda with sufficient ardor.

No such thing as neutral or only partially with them. If you're not all in, you're a llllllllllllliberal.

[applegrove]

6. If you push the truth, and build your site on the facts, you are biased against the right.