Facebook Considering Changing Trending Topic System Due To Human Influence, Is Editor Political Bias Showing?
It appears that Facebook may be changing the way trending topics are chosen.
There’s been some controversy as to the news that has been chosen to show up on Facebook’s trending list, and there’s speculation that the editors are to blame. In a report by Mashable, it’s being noted that Facebook is looking into tests that will change the trending section. Trending topics can range anywhere from music, technology, politics, and games. However, the biggest question that people have is whether or not the way in which they’re chosen is including personal bias.
Facebook is a huge social media outlet, and it makes sense that its users take great interest in what’s considered trending. After all, it’s one of the fastest ways to be updated on what’s going on in the world today. The list shows up on the main page, and users are drawn to whatever might catch their eye. However, it seems as though conservative media isn’t as likely to show up as one might hope.
Facebook may be considering taking humans out of Trending Topics https://t.co/qzRgmkeWkD #apps #sw #tech
— Benito Mendez (@elton_bra) July 1, 2016
Executive editor Vince Coglianese of The Daily Caller didn’t seem surprised that a lack of conservative media on Facebook was fairly common.
“I can’t say that I was completely surprised,” Coglianese stated to Mashable. “I think most people realize that Facebook, to the extent that it is political, is liberal.”
It’s no surprise that politics run rampant across such a large outlet. Debate is common through comments and posts, and the majority appears to see Facebook as a host for bias and liberal standing. With this in mind, Facebook looks to be changing things around to reflect the trending topics and how they will operate going forward. In the article above, you can see that the difference in trending topic images are quite different.
Facebook’s representatives had this to say in regards to the testing.
“We routinely test small changes to our all of our products, and we’re now testing a new way to display Trending Topics in the right-side column of the web version of Facebook. In addition to simplified topic names, in this test we’re also displaying a count of the number of people who are talking about that topic on Facebook. This is testing to a small number of people in the U.S.”
While there’s no official confirmation, it’s clear that Facebook’s staff has taken notice of the controversy surrounding the trending topics. Evidence of this lies in the fact that CEO Mark Zuckerberg has met with conservatives on the matter, and he promised a full investigation into the allegations and reports of political bias back in May of this year.
Diversity blues: Is Facebook going too far, or not far enough to be inclusive? https://t.co/eqmjkyb1nj
— Intl. Business Times (@IBTimes) June 25, 2016
Regardless of the controversy and its validity, Facebook has introduced new training in an effort to get out in front of reports that claim bias. International Business Times reported that Facebook will now have “political bias” training. All individuals who sit in a leadership position will have to take the class, making it mandatory to those with influence.
Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg had this to say in regards to the training.
“As we think about helping people understand different points of view and being open to different points of view, we’re dealing with political bias as well going forward.”
Despite the allegations, Facebook looks to be addressing the issue with concrete solutions that can be seen by its conservative users. Playing favorites would definitely cause an uproar, and such a rift between people because of personal bias would do great harm to social media as a whole.
How do you feel about the trending topics section of Facebook? Do you feel that it suppresses conservative media? Is it simply an accusation at best? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
[Photo By Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]
