Facebook delivers the scoop on how it delivers the news

Although not a conservative myself, I am disturbed that the TRENDING list has been arranged such that it regularly deletes "conservative" trending articles, creating a bias for "liberal" trending stories. This has been reported by several contractors for FaceBook. We know it happens on many sites, but with FB's huge impact, this is 1984 stuff. Does anyone remember FB's little experiment a few years ago where they gave people only happy or sad news without telling them? Is this FB culture?

So I am not too thrilled to hear that FB will be filtering news for very large groups of people. In the end, systems like this will become twisted and corrupted. We risk leading all of human society in the wrong direction.

Have a look at the long explanation of their "scientific and systematic" process, and note this:

"Next, a team of trending topic staffers review potential topics and confirm the topic is tied to a current news event; "

But that is not all, is it? They can delete a potential topic, or even just delay it a few days, and the value of the information might be lost. And these are not "staffers," they are contractors so that FB can maintain deniability and avoid liability. Are they audited? Who watches the Watchmen?

I don't view this FB feature positively at all. It fosters GROUPTHINK, at best.

Might as well call it "programming".