Facebook Trending

Under the changes on Facebook Trending feature, editorial staff will no longer write description of stories.

18:28 30 August 2016

Facebook has overhauled its Trending feature after bias claims. Under the changes, editorial staff will no longer write the stories’ descriptions. This comes after the social media giant was accused of suppressing conservative views, prompting complaints from Republicans.

 

Facebook have initially explained that news stories and topics are picked using a mixture of AI and human input. However, a former journalist who worked for the company said that Facebook workers "routinely suppressed news stories of interest to conservative readers".

 

Following investigation, the company said that there was no evidence of systematic bias. However, Facebook said it was making changes to allow “our team to make fewer individual decision about topics.”

 

Under the changes, users will still see personalised views and the staff will remain involved to ensure posts are still topical and based on news events. However, the wording will be simplified and entries will focus on how many people are talking about them.

 

"Facebook is a platform for all ideas, and we're committed to maintaining Trending as a way for people to access a breadth of ideas and commentary about a variety of topics," the company said.