Information About Trending Topics | Hacker News Reader

Information About Trending Topics

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34 pointsjflowers4515 comments

A non-apology with no admission of any wrongdoing. Even before the recent controversy, it was blindingly obvious to anyone who cared to look that the trending topics were curated for a particular angle. Twitter does the same thing with their trending hashtags and topics as well. How many times has an inconvenient hashtag mysteriously dropped off the trending list?

Today's implementations of social media have changed little. Control of information to the public is still in the hands of the media.

Media has always been biased in favor of the gatekeepers (and their views) that control the medium

Is facebook media though? This feels more like google removing conservative websites from their index.

The trending topics box is not that important in and of itself, but Facebook's editorial attitudes are crucial -- considering their position as an entity perceived as not having editorial attitudes. Let's all remember that algorithms reflect editorial choices just as much as manual curation. Bias cannot be erased; it's part of human communication. Declared bias > hidden biases.

Leaked FB Trend guidelines can be found here https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/12/facebook-...

Based on the comments here, am I missing something? Was Facebook recently accused of manually manipulating the trending topics?

Edit: Nevermind, found it. For those also curious: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/may/12/facebook-...

The list of sources used for "corroborating" information is interesting. It includes sources like tigerwoods.com

I've always ignored these, it's amazing to see how much some people care about them. If it looks like an ad and smells like an ad...

This won't save you from the congressional hearing

Congressional hearing? Regardless of the fact that fb pretty much holds the same position of the government and helps spread it, why would there be a congressional hearing on a private company doing what they want with their platform.

We have always been free to stop using fb or roll an alternative.

Saying a private company can do what it wants and serve who its wants is a long time passed in the USA.

Also won't save you from the congressional hearing. Such hearings only happen because they don't like what they are seeing, it pretty much means hot water, and it doesn't mean there will be any meaningful consequence except broadcasting to the nation that Congress isn't amused.

Get the popcorn ready, this could get interesting:

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-wrong-republican...

http://www.bostonherald.com/business/technology/2016/05/sena...

Considering the state of American right-wing politics, I don't blame them.

It's a very shortsighted attitude.

If the mindset is total freedom to use editorial discretion, there's no reason they couldn't use it to push conversations around ex the Free Basics controversy in India, or the things you inevitably will disagree about in the future.

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