Facebook releases 28-page doc to fight Trending Topics bias charge
SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook came out swinging against charges of political bias in the news stories it promotes to its 1.6 billion users, insisting it surfaces the most popular topics regardless of ideology and does not allow its news team to "discriminate against sources of any political origin."
"At its core, Trending Topics is designed to help people discover major events and meaningful conversations," Justin Osofsky, Facebook’s vice-president of global operations, said in a statement on Thursday.
Facebook released a 28-page internal document detailing how computer algorithms and news editors determine what news stories are the most popular on the giant social network and outlining editorial guidelines for the team of editors who oversee the Trending Topics feature.
At issue: whether conservative viewpoints were suppressed and other topics such as the Black Lives Matter movement elevated by the editors — both allegations that Facebook denies.
Trending Topics is the small box that appears in the upper right of a Facebook page or when a user taps the search bar in the mobile app that lists news topics that are most popular on Facebook.
Facebook introduced the Trending Topics feature in 2014 to capture up-to-the-minute news events — a niche dominated by Twitter. Facebook had been criticized for highlighting the Ice Bucket viral fundraising challenge, which was largely about exchanges between friends trying to raise money for medical research, as civil unrest exploded on the streets of Ferguson, Mo. A small team of editors was tapped to work around the clock guiding the selection of topics to give Facebook more of a real-time feel.
A report from technology blog Gizmodo that alleged editors deliberately censored conservative news and conservative news outlets set off a firestorm earlier this week. The report cited a former editor who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Critics seized on how much influence the team of editors has over what news is displayed to Facebook users in the Trending Topics feature. Facebook insists it has "checks and balances" to ensure chicanery cannot happen.
COMPUTERS AND HUMANS
News stories that are frequently mentioned or are frequently mentioned in a short span of time on Facebook are first surfaced by a computer algorithm, the company said.
Then, a Trending Topics team reviews the stories to confirm that the topic is a news event, writes a description backed up by at least three of a list of more than 1,000 media outlets, adds a category label such as sports and makes sure the topic is being covered by most or all of 10 major media outlets including USA TODAY, the Washington Post, CNN and Fox News. Trending Topics are then tailored to the interests of each user.
The Guardian reported Thursday that the leaked documents showed that the Facebook news team was trained to "inject" stories into trending topics and to "blacklist" others for up to a day.
According to the document released by Facebook on Thursday, the team relies on 10 trusted news websites to determine the newsworthiness of a story. A second list of 1,000 trusted sources is also consulted, according to Facebook. But, wrote the Guardian, "the guidelines are sure to bolster arguments that Facebook has made discriminatory editorial decisions against rightwing media. Conservatives would label the majority of Facebook’s primary sources as liberal."
Editors who work or used to work on the Trending Topics team are not permitted to speak publicly about their work by non-disclosure agreements. These NDAs prohibit those individuals from saying anything about how the project works and have no expiration date, one former news editor told BuzzFeed.
The editorial guidelines seemed to undercut a statement from Facebook’s vice president of search Tom Stocky on Tuesday in which he said Trending Topics showcases "the current conversation happening on Facebook." Stocky also said that Facebook does not "insert stories artificially into trending topics."
Facebook investigates political bias charges, reviews policies
Top Senate Republican John Thune of South Dakota, who chairs the Senate commerce committee, sent a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday, demanding to know how Facebook chooses trending topics.
"Facebook must answer these serious allegations and hold those responsible to account if there has been political bias in the dissemination of trending news," the letter read.
Facebook denies censoring conservative news
Facebook has pushed back against charges of political bias in a series of statements and media interviews.
Will Cathcart, director of product management for the News Feed, told The Verge that Facebook wants to show people "what you're most interested in."
"We’re not interested in adding our point of view — we actually don’t think that works for a billion people," Cathcart said.