GOP Sen. Demands Answers From Facebook After Allegations Of News Bias

In this May 16, 2012 photo, the Facebook logo is displayed on an iPad in Philadelphia. Facebook's stock has fallen below $30 for the first time. That's down 20 percent since its stock began trading publicly on May 18... In this May 16, 2012 photo, the Facebook logo is displayed on an iPad in Philadelphia. Facebook's stock has fallen below $30 for the first time. That's down 20 percent since its stock began trading publicly on May 18, following one of the most anticipated stock offerings in history. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) MORE LESS
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A Senate committee has launched an inquiry into how Facebook curates its “trending topics” section following a report that the social network’s “news curators” suppressed conservative news.

Sen. John Thune (R-SD), the head of the Senate Commerce Committee, wrote a letter dated Tuesday and first reported by Gizmodo that demanded answers to a set of questions about the social network’s practices.

In the letter, Thune asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg outright if “Facebook news curators in fact manipulated the content of the Trending Topics section, either by targeting news stories related to conservative views for exclusion or by injecting non-trending content?” The South Dakota senator also asked what steps the company was taking to investigate the allegations of “politically motivated” manipulation in that section.

Zuckerberg has until May 24 to respond to the questions Thune posed. In addition, Thune requested that Facebook employees responsible for the “trending news” section brief his committee on the issue.

“Facebook must answer these serious allegations and hold those responsible to account if there has been political bias in the dissemination of trending news,” Thune said in a statement. “Any attempt by a neutral and inclusive social media platform to censor or manipulate political discussion is an abuse of trust and inconsistent with the values of an open Internet.”

Read the full letter below:

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Notable Replies

  1. Seriously? FOX Entertainment “News” much, Senator Thune? When will you be sending Murdoch and Company a letter with the intent to hold hearings? WTF?

  2. Today’s GOP–We may be racist, xenophobic, homophobic, and misogynist, but no one, and we mean NO ONE, does falsely indignant like we do!

  3. Cite the legal power to do this other than it wastes time in an election year.

    And yeah, that will get millennials to vote Republican!

  4. what are ya gonna do? revoke their FCC license?

    nice try… I don’t much agree with Zuckerberg but if it were me I’d change the logo from thumbs up to the single finger salute and tell the Senator where to head in…

  5. Yes, clearly it’s in the interests of smaller government for the Congress to be investigating the content relevancy algorithms of private social media companies.

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