Publication1 (2)

Facebook workers routinely suppressed news stories of interest to conservative readers from the social network’s influential “trending” news section, according to a former journalist who worked on the project. This individual says that workers prevented stories about the right-wing CPAC gathering, Mitt Romney, Rand Paul, and other conservative topics from appearing in the highly-influential section, even though they were organically trending among the site’s users.

Related: Be nice to Hillary Clinton online — or risk a confrontation with her super PAC

Several former Facebook “news curators,” as they were known internally, also told Gizmodo that they were instructed to artificially “inject” selected stories into the trending news module, even if they weren’t popular enough to warrant inclusion—or in some cases weren’t trending at all.

“Depending on who was on shift, things would be blacklisted or trending,” said the former curator. This individual asked to remain anonymous, citing fear of retribution from the company. The former curator is politically conservative, one of a very small handful of curators with such views on the trending team. The former curator was so troubled by the omissions that they kept a running log of them at the time; this individual provided the notes to Gizmodo. Among the deep-sixed or suppressed topics on the list: former IRS official Lois Lerner, who was accused by Republicans of inappropriately scrutinizing conservative groups; Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker; popular conservative news aggregator the Drudge Report; Chris Kyle, the former Navy SEAL who was murdered in 2013; and former Fox News contributor Steven Crowder. “I believe it had a chilling effect on conservative news,” the former curator said.

“We were told that if we saw something, a news story that was on the front page of these ten sites, like CNN, the New York Times, and BBC, then we could inject the topic,” said one former curator.

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  1. Mr Diesel says:

    I wonder how many on here will even know what movie the face is from.

    [Click on the Like button – ed.]

  2. Hmeyers says:

    Possibly the best political cartoon I’ve seen in a decade.

    http://a.disquscdn.com/uploads/mediaembed/images/3620/7290/original.jpg

    • Ah_Yea says:

      Just don’t post that on Facebook.

      • Hmeyers says:

        Read somewhere “Trump is like an internet comments section decided to run for president”.

        Thought that was rather funny.

        He sure is making an impression on the system, and it will be funny to see what happens in the coming months.

        Seems the most recent thing is the news media seeing some polls showing Trump in a dead heat in the 3 largest battleground states.

        And some of the people who “read the news” on TV were having some trouble with digesting that.

        My theory is that “The Donald” is an acquired taste, like horseradish, that grows on you over time.

  3. NewFormatSux says:

    So same as the rest of the media. Donald turned it to his advantage.

  4. Ah_Yea says:

    Great way to get “on the radar” should a Republican become President.

    What are these morons thinking??

  5. NewFormatSux says:

    Stories facebook and liberal media would like to avoid:

    Isaac meanwhile maintains he’s only 15, since he started school in Eritrea when he was 10 and then went to school for an additional seven years. He finished school two years ago, which according to him, makes him only 15.

    The Lund District Court finds this sort of calculation bizarre, but the judge has decided to move forward with the case under the assumption that he is, in fact, just 15.

    Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2016/05/08/swedish-mother-opens-up-home-to-refugee-who-promptly-assaults-her-daughter/#ixzz48DBMhDPY

  6. jpfitz says:

    Whoever gets their news only from FB, twit, and snap needs to get a pair of truth sunglasses. Wake-up or OBEY.

  7. jpfitz says:

    This is nothing new folks. Humans being human. Lies and money run the show.

    I remember watching a documentary about Ralph Nader, I saw a professional binder brought to some security wearing a suit at the entrance of the D debates. The suit opened the binder, and I shit you not, on the front of the binder in big bold letters was… FACEBOOK.

    Before the IT revolution, hard-copies was a must to keep undesirables out.

    http://www.alternet.org/story/9890/protesters_beaten_as_nader_tries_to_enter_debate

  8. bobbo, the pragmatic existential evangelical anti-theist says:

    Everything is censored/biased/shaped. THAT is why you have to read………….if not everything……… a wide selection of sources.

    I must say, one of my favorite “review and comment” shows for the past few months has been Faux News “Red Eye w Tom Shalliue (sp)”. I liked it with Greg Gutfeld as well and didn’t think Shallue would be as good…but he’s actually better.

    Still has a right wing bias that shows through, but its not oppressive….and it is topical and funny. Gutfeld is becoming more full of himself. Hard to avoid I guess.

    I have Facebook and Twitter accounts (required now to log into more and more other websites) but have only ever actually read Reddit where a friend was top rated for his anti-god post.

    ………………so, what you are telling me is that FG is a “news” source? …..as opposed to a commenting forum? Fair enough I suppose, much like DU is my primary source of info on Felon Musk? Chicken and Egg–which came first: the opinion or the source?

  9. Lemming No. 9 says:

    Who the HELL uses Facebook?!!!

    … Oh. That’s right. Uneducated, uninteresting, know-it-all snobs and other fucked up anti social LEMMINGS. That’s who. IOW, THE NEW MAJORITY!

  10. And now here's something you'll really like says:

    DU will be right back, after these messages…

  11. Likes2LOL says:

    There’s been no news in 9 days on this blog(?)

    I hope everybody didn’t die! 😉

  12. bobbo, the pragmatic existential evangelical anti-theist says:

    TWELVE days and no new post. Sad….ignoble. I think each and every editor would want to post a good bye note…so I believe they all got T-Boned coming back from some Forum Editors Motivational Conference.

    It was a slow but very marked decline. Marked when Dvorak stopped making comments every once in awhile. Not just him, but the Cage Match died several months before that. Several long time tech oriented commentators as well.

    I’ll keep checking as I’m too lazy to figure out my news feeds…..but there are other forums out there. I like the one’s where we can start our own discussion threads. Less work for the editors as well. I’d mention the few I attend, but want to give DU every chance in the world.

    Is it money? I can see the interest fading after a number of years, but not all the eds at the same time.

    I suppose there will be a mention of this somewhere at some time?

    Regardless—thanks to all who have told me I’m a retarded ass hat. I enjoyed all the exchanges.

  13. Likes2LOL says:

    Well, I suppose we could just go back and re-read all the old posts from the Good Old Days, that ought to keep any one of us busy for at least a few months, at least through the convalescence from a broken hip.

    Internet Archive Wayback Machine
    https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.dvorak.org/blog/

    P.S. Maybe there are new posts, but the NSA’s new firewall filters are preventing us from seeing them? At least they’ll be archiving them in their Utah data center… 😉


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