Over 1.23 billion people in the world use Facebook and are able to see "what's trending" in the world on the top of the right side of their home screen. However, a former Facebook employee has spoken out to the online news source, Gizmodo, claiming that the billions of people in the world do not pick what new events are going on and affecting us, and therefore trending online. Instead, it is a group of highly educated individuals that insert the stories they feel are important.
This former employee stated to Gizmodo that Facebook specifically did not include stories that would be of interest to conservative readers and that it would depend on which Facebook "news curators" were working and what they wanted along with what they were instructed to and not to share. Facebook, in response, claimed that they have an algorithm used to figure out what news topics become increasingly popular and the Facebook curators are used to just double check the algorithms findings. This algorithm places the stories that trend more on the top of the recommended reading list on the Facebook users home page. The higher up it is on the list, the more likely someone is to click on the link and read the article, and then they become more aware of the cause that the writer of the article is trying to bring about.
The anonymous source also claims that if a trending topic did lean towards the left-wing, the Facebook employees would try and find a more neutral stance article concerning the subject matter to avoid posting articles favoring conservatives. The anonymous source also said to Gizmodo that news stories that were not trending on Facebook were inserted into the section because of a claim on other news sources. Facebook believed that sometimes stories of importance were only not trending because there wasn't enough awareness on the subject yet to be picked out by the algorithm and inserted into the trending section naturally, yet it was a subject that Facebook believed was going to be important once there was more awareness on the subject.
In response to the allegations, Facebook has claimed that have found no evidence of bias in their trending section, but will continue to look into the matter because Facebook is a resource that everyone should be able to use and express their opinions on. Also, in response to Republican Senator John Thune, Facebook claims that with the type of censorship they are being accused of is not possible with the technology they are using.
Censorship, according to the dictionary, is "the practice of officially examining books, movies, etc., and suppressing unacceptable parts." If allegations against Facebook prove true, then they have not done their job. Despite political views, hearing the other sides opinions should not be considered "unacceptable" as everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and everyone has the right to know what's going on in the world, including conservative news that is also happening every day. If the people do not hear about both sides, how will they be able to become educated on the topic or formulate their own opinion on the matter? The people should be able to pick what is important to know about, therefore, what is trending online, and not a select group of people.
