San Francisco
Such moves have helped Facebook attract users and advertising dollars — but they have also invited scrutiny more common in the news business than in tech.
Now, facing accusations of editorial bias at his company, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is playing a role familiar for publishers: hashing things out with vocal critics.
On Wednesday afternoon, Zuckerberg was scheduled to meet with around 15 conservative leaders, including Glenn Beck, a television personality and radio host; Dana Perino, co-host of The Five on Fox News Channel; Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute; and Barry Bennett, senior advisor to the Donald Trump campaign.
The meeting came after the tech news site Gizmodo reported that former contractors who ran Facebook’s “trending topics” feature downplayed news from conservative outlets and about conservative topics.
Although Zuckerberg did not publicly lay out an agenda, he said on his Facebook page that he wanted “to have a direct conversation about what Facebook stands for and how we can be sure our platform stays as open as possible.”
Zuckerberg said the company is conducting a full investigation into the allegations, but has so far “found no evidence that this report is true.”
Despite this, the meeting is important for Zuckerberg and for Facebook, according to Patrick Moorhead, president and principal analyst of Moor Insights and Strategy, because the last thing he can afford to do is alienate conservative users.
“It would be devastating if conservative users left for a competing platform, or stopped using it because they felt it was biased toward them,” Moorhead said.
Although Facebook’s stock price has soared as the company has recorded high profits and continued growth of its user base, Moorhead believes that the Menlo Park, Calif., firm could suffer if conservative users strayed.
“Look at what happened to CNN when Fox was created,” Moorhead said. “Fox has swept cable news for at least the last five years. I believe Zuckerberg will do everything in his power to convince them (that Facebook) isn’t biased.”
Winning over conservative leaders may not be enough in the long run, though, warned Mark Bartholomew, a law professor at the University at Buffalo who believes Facebook should be held to the same standard as traditional media.
A letter the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee sent to Zuckerberg inquiring about the bias allegations could be a good start, he said. “It is an attempt to open the ‘black box’ currently clouding more of Facebook’s decisions about what content reaches us.”
He also said there needs to be greater public awareness that Facebook is not a neutral platform.
“The more we think about Facebook as a business run by people with their own biases and motivations and not simply a neutral conduit for information, the better,” he said.
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