In the latest of a series of tell-all articles published by Gizmodo regarding Facebook’s trending news section, it was revealed that not only do the social media platform’s curators reportedly censor trending conservative news, but that all Facebook-related news is also carefully filtered before being posted.
This revelation comes at an interesting time for Facebook, who recently issued a memo to their employees stating, “We encourage any and all candidates, groups, and voters to use our platform to share their views on the election and debate the issues. We as a company are neutral – we have not and will not use our products in a way that attempts to influence how people vote.”
Gizmodo’s first tell-all article regarding Facebook’s trending news section reported the social media company employs recent Ivy League graduates to act as curators, and that these “20-something contractors” were forced to work in a “basement” with “grueling work conditions, humiliating treatment, and a secretive, imperious culture in which they were treated as disposable outsiders.”
This latest tell-all article ups the ante, with Gizmodo reporting that Facebook’s trending news section isn’t neutral at all, but instead has a “select group of professionals with vaguely center-left sensibilities” acting as gatekeepers.
According to the one former curator Gizmodo quoted, stories by conservative outlets such as Breitbart or The Drudge Report were suppressed unless a news source such as the BBC or The New York Times reported on the same story.
Some examples of suppressed topics described to Gizmodo include Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, the IRS scandal, Chris Kyle and Steven Crowder.
