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Internal Facebook Investigation Finds No Evidence Of Political Bias On 'Trending Topics'

Facebook Finds No Evidence Of Political Bias On 'Trending Topics'
Reuters
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Stephen Lam / Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO, May 23 (Reuters) - Facebook Inc will no longer rely on a top-10 list of websites to help choose items for its Trending Topics section, even though an internal probe showed no evidence of political bias in the selection process, the company said on Monday.

The world's largest social media network said in a blogpost that changes include clearer guidelines for human editors on the Trending Topics team, more training to emphasize avoiding ideological or political basis, and more robust review procedures.

The internal investigation was prompted by a letter from Republican Sen. John Thune earlier this month demanding that the company explain how it selects news articles for its "trending" list. 

A former Facebook contractor had accused the company's editors of deliberately suppressing conservative news. The allegations were reported by technology news website Gizmodo, which did not identify the ex-contractor.

Facebook said its investigation showed that conservative and liberal topics were approved as trending topics at nearly identical rates. It said it was unable to substantiate any allegations of politically motivated suppression of particular subjects or sources.

In his letter, Thune called on Facebook to respond to criticism that it suppressed conservative news and sought answers by May 24 to several questions about its internal practices.

"Any attempt by a neutral and inclusive social media platform to censor or manipulate political discussion is an abuse of trust and inconsistent with the values of an open Internet," Thune said.

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg last week met with more than a dozen conservative politicians and media personalities to discuss issues of trust in the social network.

(Reporting by Yasmeen Abutaleb in San Francisco and Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru; Editing by Mary Milliken and Richard Chang)

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Before You Go

10 Ways Facebook Messes With Your Life
It Can Mess With Your Sleep(01 of10)
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Heavy social media use can upset sleep patterns, studies have found. And not getting enough sleep can cause you to check Facebook compulsively.

The result is an exhausting feedback loop that could leave you fried. (credit:Erin Patrice O'Brien via Getty Images)
It Can Make You Depressed(02 of10)
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Spending too much time on Facebook could stir up feelings of envy, according to a study published in 2015. Envy, in turn, could make you depressed.

“We found that if Facebook users experience envy of the activities and lifestyles of their friends on Facebook, they are much more likely to report feelings of depression,” study co-author Dr. Margaret Duffy, a University of Missouri journalism professor, said in a press release.

But, simply being aware that people are presenting their best selves -- and not necessarily their real selves -- on social media could help you feel less envious. (credit:sturti via Getty Images)
It Can Drain Your Smartphone Battery(03 of10)
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Facebook's Android and iPhone apps are real battery sucks. Facebook has said it's addressing the problem. In the meantime, deleting the app from your smartphone could boost your battery by up to 20 percent.

Here's how to do it. (credit:milindri via Getty Images)
It Can Sap Your Focus(04 of10)
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The average attention span is decreasing, according to research. Constant distractions created by our "digital lifestyles" could be changing our brain chemistry and sapping our focus. Yikes! (credit:David Malan via Getty Images)
It Can Ruin Your Relationship(05 of10)
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Social networks bring people together, but they can also drive a wedge between married couples, according to psychologists. Constantly checking Facebook can ruin intimate moments, and the ability to connect with old flames online can spark extra-marital trysts. (credit:Vincent Besnault via Getty Images)
It Can Make You Socially Awkward(06 of10)
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Our dependence on social media could be making it more difficult to connect with others in person. “I think it’s the death of an actual civilized conversation,” Justine Harman, features editor at Elle.com, told The Huffington Post in an interview in 2014.

What's more, most of your Facebook friends don't really care that much about you. (credit:Fuse via Getty Images)
It Can Be A Huge Waste Of Time(07 of10)
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The more time you spend on Facebook, the worse you feel, according to behavioral science research. That's because Facebook feels to many people like a waste of time.

“It appears that, compared to browsing the Internet, Facebook is judged as less meaningful, less useful, and more of a waste of time, which then leads to a decrease in mood,” Christina Sagioglou and Tobias Greitemeyer, behavioral scientists at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, wrote in a paper published in 2014.

Facebook doesn't always make us feel crummy. But, if it does, it's time to do something else. (credit:Gianluca D'Auri Muscelli via Getty Images)
It Can Create An Echo Chamber(08 of10)
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Critics of social media have long suggested that Facebook's algorithm -- which determines the posts you see based on posts you've clicked -- can create "echo chambers" online. Being exposed to content you already understand or agree with can insulate you from diverse views, critics argue.

But Facebook disagrees, saying last year that it was not responsible for creating echo chambers. Either way, Facebook still plays a big role in how people consume information online. (credit:Facebook)
It Tracks (And Shapes) Your Behavior(09 of10)
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Facebook uses complex machine learning algorithms to decide what you see on the site. If it notices you like posts related to soccer, for instance, it might surface more soccer posts in your feed. But it doesn't always get this right.

Eventually, it may get better at understanding people's preferences -- so much better that some experts fear how precisely future marketing and political campaigns will be able to target people. We might even come to "question whether we still have free will," Illah Nourbakhsh, a robotics expert at Carnegie Mellon University, told HuffPost in an interview. (credit:Facebook)
It Knows When You Go To Bed At Night(10 of10)
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Turns out, Facebook has enough information about you that it can be used to track when you turn in for the night and when you wake up in the morning. Danish software developer Soren Louv-Jansen developed a tool that used Facebook data to let people observe their friends' sleep patterns.

Though Facebook asked him to take down this tool, the stunt pointed to a larger issue of data privacy: We all reveal a huge amount of personal information online, and we can't always control how others use it. (credit:Tara Moore via Getty Images)
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