Leaked Documents
Confirm Facebook Deciding Which News Stories Trend
by Allum Bokhari 12 May 2016
Mere days after Tom Stocky, Facebook’s Trending News manager, rejected reports that
his subordinates “artificially inject” items into its list of trending news
stories, a leak
of internal guidelines published in The Guardian show that the
company does exactly that.
The document shows that Facebook’s team behaves like
a typical Old Media outlet, with editors selecting and approving
stories at virtually every stage of the process. The
company also keeps a list of 1,000 “trusted” outlets that it uses in its
Trending News feature.
The document also instructs staffers to check if a story
is headlining on mainstream outlets like CNN, BBC, Fox News, and The New
York Times before assigning it “national-level” importance. This is in
stark contrast to the company’s outward claim that its Trending News feature
merely reflects what’s currently trending among its userbase.
Moreover, editors are given the power to insert new
topics into the trending list, provided they pass a particular threshold of
popularity. This specifically contradicts a claim by Tom Stocky, the company’s
manager of Trending News, who earlier this week said “we do not insert stories
artificially into trending topics, and do not instruct our reviewers to do so.”
This follows a week of damaging reports from anonymous
sources at the company, who told Gizmodo that members of Facebook’s Trending
News feature, which is intended to reflect only the most popular news topics
being discussed on Facebook, routinely discriminated
against conservative news sources.
This news is likely to add to the political momentum
building against Facebook, which now faces the prospect of a congressional
inquiry into political bias at the company. Earlier this week, Republican
Senator Jim Thune sent CEO Mark Zuckerberg a letter demanding
answers on the issue. The RNC has also put out a statement calling on Facebook
to address its bias against conservatives.
According to The Guardian, the lesson of
the latest leak is clear. Facebook, once the centre of a supposedly
people-powered social media revolution, is now starting to behave like a
traditional mainstream media outlet. Its news operation is “now akin to a
traditional media organization,” says The Guardian.
In a statement to the newspaper, Facebook vice-president
Justin Osofsky maintained that it did not discriminate politically.
The guidelines demonstrate that we have a series of
checks and balances in place to help surface the most important popular
stories, regardless of where they fall on the ideological spectrum. Facebook
does not allow or advise our reviewers to systematically discriminate against
sources of any political origin, period. What these guidelines show is that
we’ve approached this responsibly and with the goal of creating a high-quality
product – in the hopes of delivering a meaningful experience for the people who
use our service.
Facebook
Erskine B. Bowles
is a director at Facebook, a co-chair
for the National Commission on Fiscal
Responsibility and Reform, a trustee at the Urban Institute (think tank), and was a funder for the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton
Foundation.
Note: Paul Ryan is a member
of the National Commission on Fiscal
Responsibility and Reform, and a member & speaker for the U.S. House of Representatives.
National
Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform is a paid for staff by the Economic Policy Institute.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Economic Policy Institute, and the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
George
Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, was a member of the Democracy Alliance, and the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Economic
Policy Institute, the Urban Institute (think tank), and the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Chris
Hughes was a member of the Democracy
Alliance, and is a co-founder of Facebook.
Marne L. Levine
is a VP at Facebook, and a trustee
at the Urban Institute (think tank).
Sheryl K.
Sandberg is the COO & director for Facebook,
and a trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
Ann
M. Fudge is a trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), a member of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, and a
trustee at the Rockefeller Foundation.
Rockefeller
Foundation was a funder for the Brookings
Institution (think tank), the Economic
Policy Institute, the Urban
Institute (think tank), and the Bill,
Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
National
Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform is a paid for staff by the Economic Policy Institute.
Paul
Ryan is a member of the National
Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, and a member & speaker
for the U.S. House of Representatives.
Erskine B. Bowles
is a co-chair for the National
Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, a director at Facebook, a trustee at the Urban Institute (think tank), and was a
funder for the Bill, Hillary &
Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
Sean N.
Parker Foundation was a funder for the Bill,
Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, and the Entertainment Industry Foundation.
Sean
Parker is the president of the Sean
N. Parker Foundation, a friend of John
Perry Barlow, was the president of Facebook,
and a contributor for the Americans for
Responsible Solutions.
John Perry Barlow
is a friend of Sean Parker, and was
a lyricist for the Grateful Dead.
Bob
Weir is the founder of the Grateful
Dead, and a member of the Bohemian
Club.
Mickey
Hart was a drummer for the Grateful
Dead, and is a member of the Bohemian
Club.
George H.W. Bush
is a member of the Bohemian Club,
and a member of the Burning Tree Club.
John A. Boehner is
a member of the Burning Tree Club,
and was a member & speaker for the U.S.
House of Representatives.
Paul
Ryan is a member & speaker for the U.S.
House of Representatives, and a member of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.
National
Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform is a paid for staff by the Economic Policy Institute.
Henry A. Kissinger is a member of the Bohemian Club, a director at the
American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank), a friend of Michael R. Bloomberg & Arianna Huffington, and a 2008 Bilderberg
conference participant (think tank).
Michael R.
Bloomberg is a friend of Henry A.
Kissinger, and was a contributor for the Americans for Responsible Solutions.
Americans
for Responsible Solutions is a “Gun
Safety, Gun Control” PAC for guns.
Sean
Parker was a contributor for the Americans
for Responsible Solutions, the president of Facebook, is a friend of John
Perry Barlow, and the president of the Sean
N. Parker Foundation.
Sean N.
Parker Foundation was a funder for the Bill,
Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, and the Entertainment Industry Foundation.
Entertainment
Industry Foundation was a funder for the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
Sherry L. Lansing
is the chair, director for the Entertainment
Industry Foundation, and a friend of Arianna
Huffington.
Arianna
Huffington is a friend of Sherry L.
Lansing, and a friend of Henry A.
Kissinger.
Henry A. Kissinger is a friend of Arianna Huffington & Michael
R. Bloomberg, a member of the Bohemian
Club, a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think tank),
and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Bob
Weir is a member of the Bohemian
Club, and the founder of the Grateful
Dead.
John Perry Barlow
is was a lyricist for the Grateful Dead,
and a friend of Sean Parker.
Sean
Parker is a friend of John Perry
Barlow, the president of the Sean N.
Parker Foundation, was the president of Facebook, and a contributor for the Americans for Responsible Solutions.
Erskine B. Bowles
is a director at Facebook, a co-chair
for the National Commission on Fiscal
Responsibility and Reform, a trustee at the Urban Institute (think tank), and was a funder for the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton
Foundation.
Mickey
Hart was a drummer for the Grateful
Dead, and is a member of the Bohemian
Club.
George H.W. Bush
is a member of the Bohemian Club,
and a member of the Burning Tree Club.
John A. Boehner is
a member of the Burning Tree Club,
and was a member & speaker for the U.S.
House of Representatives.
Paul
Ryan is a member & speaker for the U.S.
House of Representatives, and a member of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.
National
Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform is a paid for staff by the Economic Policy Institute.
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