In early 2017, Facebook made another attempt to fix the trending section, this time by including only topics covered by several news publishers.
TRENDING CONTENT ON FACEBOOK SOFTWARE
Instead, the software algorithm began to pick out posts that were getting the most attention, even if the information in them was bogus. In late 2016, Facebook fired the human editors who worked on the trending topics and replaced them with software that was supposed to be free of political bias. Yet two years later, Facebook still hasn't been able to shake the notion of bias. Zuckerberg met with prominent right-wing leaders at the company's headquarters in an attempt at damage control. Troubles with the trending section began to emerge in 2016, when the company was accused of bias against conservatives, based on the words of an anonymous former contractor who said Facebook downplayed conservative issues in the trending section and promoted liberal causes.įacebook notifies users about the changes to Trending section (Facebook/Screenshot) But instead of having Facebook's moderators, human or otherwise, make editorial decisions, there's also been a subtle shift to let news organizations do so.Īccording to the Pew Research Center, 44% of US adults get some or all of their news through Facebook.
In an interview ahead of today's announcement, Facebook's head of news products, Alex Hardiman, said the company is still committed to breaking and real-time news.
Facebook also wants to make local news more prominent. While Facebook is killing the trending section, it is testing new features, including a "breaking news" label that publishers can add to stories to distinguish them from other chatter. Trending news that year included the death of Robin Williams, Ebola and the World Cup.
"Fake news" wasn't yet a popular term, and no foreign country had been accused of trying to influence the U.S.
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