This whole kerfuffle continues to puzzle me. Facebook is a private company. It can do whatever it likes. It could decide that only stories about Zuckerberg were “trending,” if it felt like it. If “conservative pundits” want their viewpoints put front and center on everyone’s feed, all they have to do is purchase Facebook. Are they seriously proposing that Facebook be regulated like a utility?
Fun Fact: Unlike Drumpf, Zuckerberg is actually a billionaire.
Even though he made his money by stealing someone else’s idea.
Isn’t this the free market at work? Amazing how conservatives want the free market until they can’t define free market, innit?
No, they’ll spend the whole time kissing his ass because he’s wealthy.
“Behind every great fortune is a great crime.”
The meeting is Facebook’s latest damage control move after a Gizmodo
report highlighted a former Facebook news curator who alleged his
colleagues suppressed conservative news from the “trending news” module.
Maybe I’ve missed it, but Facebook doesn’t seem to be playing damage control. Maybe he’ll just lecture them on Internet news feeds–and FOXNews.
This is like the “conservatives targeted by the IRS” scandal in one way, but very different in another: If they piss off Zuckerberg, he can pretty much outright buy their seats in Congress. $100 Million here, $100 Million there… Adelson can only wish he had as much $ and power as Zuckerberg actually does.
Wonder when a similar group will convene to discuss Fox News suppression of liberal news.
Zuckerberg is pissing up a rope here.
I hope one of the trending topics after the meeting is how puerile they all are.
No…because to legislate that would mean, in effect, bringing back the Fairness Doctrine. And they certainly don’t want Fox, or any of the Sunday Shows, to have to give equal time.
Still working the refs I see. Zuckerberg is wasting his time. Unless he caves to providing the preeminence of wingnut news on Facebook, nothing will satisfy any of them. By meeting with them, Zuckerberg is already buckling under the pressure, and willing to let them shift the argument or move whatever goal posts they want before the election. Pundits could care less about algorithms. What they do want is to shift the news more to the wingnut right regardless of how they accomplish that.
I hope Zuckerberg has a real good stenographer that takes really good notes or video backup, because when or if he doesn’t give them what they want, they’ll be more than happy to continue to go after him and get him to heel. Methinks he’ll need objective proof of what goes on in that meeting or he will find himself screwed and Facebook will continue to be the object of their hysteria and animus.
Again, as a private company they have no obligation to report rightwing bullshit and news stories anymore than Beck has to report news that has a well-known liberal bias with a positive spin.
Messaging. These people never stop. And neither should we.
Why do people continue to make the same mistake with Trump? If Trump has problem with FB, Trump should meet directky with Zuckerberg at his offices.
If I’m the CEO of the largest and most influential social media platform Trump is bringing his ass to me. I’m not allowing Trump to send advisers.
Why is everybody so scared of Trump
That should have been the title of this piece.
They do want the Fairness Doctrine. But they want it to apply only to organizations that have manifestly failed to understand the quintessential truth and beauty of their opinions.
it sounds to me as though FB may have had a rogue employee or two who were exercising some political judgment. That may be why Zuckerberg is meeting with some conservative media figures. Even if that’s not the case and he’s merely explaining how their curation works and to assure them that they aren’t biased, it’s a smart move on his part. Personal contact is generally effective. I’m not sure why Carly Fiorina should be invited to this; she’s not a journalist or media personality and that merely politicizes the meeting. I’m also not sure why a “Trump representative” should be invited.
Perhaps Mr. Zuckerberg can stop by CostCo on the way to this meeting and load up on the baby wipes.
an opportunity to free all points of view but at the same time unify America and the world," Beck wrote.
Megalomania much?