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Facebook seems to have a conservative bias. I've never used it myself though, so I can't completely say. I'm also not saying whether or not they should, but the

Facebook seems to have a conservative bias. I've never used it myself though, so I can't completely say. I'm also not saying whether or not they should, but they seem to. Zuckerburg regularly hangs out with conservative political figures, but not liberal or letist ones. [0] They censor the left regularly [1]. Also, is there even any leftist publications in the FB news tab? They let the right slide by on things regularly though. They don't censor racism. [2] And they apparently have a bias that allows right publications to break their rules. [0] https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-holding-private-dinners-with-conservatives-2019-10?op=1 https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-holding-priv... [1] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/04/24/facebook-while-black-zucked-users-say-they-get-blocked-racism-discussion/2859593002/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/04/24/facebook-whil... [2] https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/facebook-employee-leaks-show-they-feel-betrayed https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/facebook-employ...

mikeshank 6y ago
The way this year has been going I didn't think I would laugh again. Thank you!
twic 6y ago
There was also this business about removing fact-checking of a bunk climate science article at the behest of a Republican congressman: https://heated.world/p/fact-check-of-viral-climate-misinformation https://heated.world/p/fact-check-of-viral-climate-misinform... My interpretation of this is not that Facebook has a conservative bias (what does it even mean for a company to have a bias?), but that Facebook's leaders are well aware that the company are extremely vulnerable to regulation, and that keeping the current administration sweet is a good way of evading regulation. If the US enters 2021 with a Democratic administration not hamstrung by a Republican congress, i would expect the apparent bias to evaporate or reverse.
- munificent 6y ago
  > My interpretation of this is not that Facebook has a conservative bias (what does it even mean for a company to have a bias?) It would mean that the company's actions benefit members of one side of the political spectrum more than the other. We're free to speculate about why a company's actions might do that and whether it's deliberate or an emergent consequence of some other intention, but I think it's fairly straightforward to define what bias would mean.

mikeshank 6y ago

The way this year has been going I didn't think I would laugh again. Thank you!

twic 6y ago

There was also this business about removing fact-checking of a bunk climate science article at the behest of a Republican congressman: https://heated.world/p/fact-check-of-viral-climate-misinformation https://heated.world/p/fact-check-of-viral-climate-misinform... My interpretation of this is not that Facebook has a conservative bias (what does it even mean for a company to have a bias?), but that Facebook's leaders are well aware that the company are extremely vulnerable to regulation, and that keeping the current administration sweet is a good way of evading regulation. If the US enters 2021 with a Democratic administration not hamstrung by a Republican congress, i would expect the apparent bias to evaporate or reverse.

munificent 6y ago
> My interpretation of this is not that Facebook has a conservative bias (what does it even mean for a company to have a bias?) It would mean that the company's actions benefit members of one side of the political spectrum more than the other. We're free to speculate about why a company's actions might do that and whether it's deliberate or an emergent consequence of some other intention, but I think it's fairly straightforward to define what bias would mean.