Facebook's general counsel announced Monday that while Facebook was "unable to substantiate" allegations of "politically motivated suppression of particular subjects or sources" in its Trending Topics feature, the company is changing some of its policies to "minimize risks where human judgment is involved."
Facebook leaders met with prominent conservatives and Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, last week after unidentified former Facebook workers in charge of curating Trending Topics alleged in Gizmodo that they and their coworkers suppressed conservative articles. General counsel Colin Stretch wrote on Monday that an investigation by the company has "revealed no evidence of systematic political bias in the selection or prominence of stories included in the Trending Topics feature. Our data analysis indicated that conservative and liberal topics are approved as trending topics at virtually identical rates."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Today's political cartoons - November 3, 2024Cartoons Sunday's cartoons - presidential pitching, wavering convictions, and more
-
Why Man United finally lost patience with ten HagTalking Point After another loss United sacked ten Hag in hopes of success in the Champion's League
-
Who are the markets backing in the US election?Talking Point Speculators are piling in on the Trump trade. A Harris victory would come as a surprise
-
FTC bans fake online product reviewsSpeed Read The agency will enforce fines of up to $51,744 per violation
-
States sue TikTok over children's mental healthSpeed Read The lawsuit was filed by 13 states and Washington, D.C.
-
Is the AI bubble deflating?Today's Big Question Growing skepticism and high costs prompt reconsideration
-
Amazon ending 'Just Walk Out' grocery checkoutSpeed Read In its place, the company will let customers scan while they shop with Amazon Dash Cart
-
How social media is limiting political contentThe Explainer Critics say Meta's 'extraordinary move' to have less politics in users' feeds could be 'actively muzzling civic action'
-
Justice Department bites Apple with iPhone suitSpeed Read The lawsuit alleges that the tech company monopolized the smartphone industry
-
House votes to force TikTok to sell or face US banspeed read The House passed a bill to ban TikTok on national security grounds unless it sells to a non-Chinese company
-
Apple kills its secret electric car projectSpeed Read Many of the people from Project Titan are being reassigned to work on generative AI
