Zuckerberged
By Mitch Berg
Sources tell Gizmodo that Facebook routinely gundecked “conservative” news – spiking it from the “trending” news section, even if it was legitimately, y’know, trending (and buffing up stories that management wanted pushed):
These new allegations emerged after Gizmodo last week revealed details about the inner workings of Facebook’s trending news team—a small group of young journalists, primarily educated at Ivy League or private East Coast universities, who curate the “trending” module on the upper-right-hand corner of the site.
Tangential note: you’re a young “journalist” with an Ivy-League degree. You’re working as a “curator” for Facebook.
Contact me. I’ll refer you to a good suicide hotline. You’re gonna need it sooner than later.
I digress:
“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. “I’d come on shift and I’d discover that CPAC or Mitt Romney or Glenn Beck or popular conservative topics wouldn’t be trending because either the curator didn’t recognize the news topic or it was like they had a bias against Ted Cruz.”
It’s really no different than any newspaper. Just big and financially successful.
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.
It does bespeak a certain insecurity, doesn’t it?
(It also introduces a conundrum: which do more hope to see crash and burn? Facebook or Twitter?)
May 10th, 2016 at 7:21 am
Is anybody or everybody surprised by this? I mean, Zuckerberg rails on Trump’s wall construction plan, yet has a ten foot high one around his mansion. What are you afraid of, Marky?
That said, I can understand why he doesn’t want to keep illegals out of the country. Apparently, he does open the gates to let his Hispanic lawn maintenance crew in. How many of them do you suppose are here legally?
May 10th, 2016 at 7:31 am
(It also introduces a conundrum: which do more hope to see crash and burn? Facebook or Twitter?)
Why choose?
May 10th, 2016 at 7:41 am
Maybe when they grow up they can work as comment moderators for the Mpls Star-Tribune.
May 10th, 2016 at 8:43 am
(It also introduces a conundrum: which do more hope to see crash and burn? Facebook or Twitter?) – see also Iran vs. Iraq war.
I picked up the idea of calling them ‘Narrative Coordinators’ along the way somewhere. I thought of it more as an insult to them that they would simply ‘rip & read’ the releases from the Obama Admin; various departments & agencies; (bow your head) NGO’s (unbow head); or anyone that opposed the NRA, the Koch Brothers and Global Warmening Skeptics.
Now I don’t know what’s worse – learning that in fact they did ‘rip & read’ releases without a critical thought* or that they actually are coordinating a narrative that is spoonfed to the dopes who get their news from the Facebook?
*Imagine: “The Koch Brothers have a subsidiary that does nothing but 1). make Youtube videos that inspire deadly riots in BENGHAZI! and 2). Execute polar bears, especially the cute cuddly ones that sell Coca-Cola, with NRA gun show loophole supplied automatic assault weapons? We got to get that on Buzzfeed, the Facebook and Twitter, STAT!. Somebody make a ‘GIF’ with Beyonce` mouthing the words “I can’t even”. It’s Pulitzer material, yo!!”
May 10th, 2016 at 9:47 am
Facebook newsfeed is that thing over on the right that I never pay attention to, right?
May 10th, 2016 at 11:02 am
gl whisler….I thought the exact same thing. Does anyone read those?
May 12th, 2016 at 4:17 pm
Zuckerberg can hire or fire whoever he wants. FB is biased? So what? Here’s another revelation: Life isn’t fair. The worst scenario would be for some upstart legislator to draft a law making FB toe the line and be “balanced.” Wrong The the Left would have a herd of cows. And, rightfully so.
Then, Congress could enforce “balance.” Nothing scarier.