Following a meeting with conservative leaders in the US, Facebook made changes to its Trending Topics algorithm and will not supplement it with lists of external websites and news outlets to assess the importance of particular topics. The changes are aimed at reducing political bias out of its trending stories. Facebook will not be using the “Media 1K” list, a list of RSS feeds used to supplement the algorithm that generates potential trending topics, and the top-10 list of news outlets. The changes are in response to a Gizmodo report that the company ‘suppressed conservative news’ in its Trending Topics panel. An investigation by the Guardian showed leaked documents from Facebook, citing the Trending Topics guidelines. The guidelines don’t say anything about suppressing any kind of content, but indeed follow any typical newsroom’s approach which has in house styles and editorial guidelines. However, Facebook said that its internal investigation did not reveal evidence of systematic political bias. But the company said that it is increasing oversight on the review team which includes a better escalation procedure. It also provided updated guidelines for what can be included in trending topics and reviewers underwent a refresher course that emphasized that content decisions may not be made on the basis of politics or ideology. Also read: Why we joined Facebook’s Instant Articles & Left – Amit Bhawani, Phone Radar Isolated incidents cannot be helped The company, however, concluded that it is impossible to fully exclude the possibility that, over the years of the feature’s existence, a specific reviewer took isolated actions…
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