Facebook has investigated Facebook and judged that Facebook is not guilty.
The findings have been released in a letter to Senator John Thune, who earlier this month called the social network to account for allegations that it artificially suppresses conservative topics on its “Trending News” feed, and artificially promoted progressives ones.
In the letter, which can be read in full here, Facebook reiterated their long-standing claim that there is no bias in the way they select Trending Topics.
Our investigation has revealed no evidence of systematic political bias in the selection or prominence of stories included in the Trending Topics feature. In fact, our analysis indicated that the rates of approval of conservative and liberal topics are virtually identical in Trending Topics. Moreover, we were unable to substantiate any of the specific allegations of politically-motivated suppression of subjects or sources, as reported in the media.
However, the letter did acknowledge that their curation process may have been affected by “unintentional bias.” To resolve the issue, the company has promised to alter its curation process in a number of ways.
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