Facebook defends itself against accusations of covering up the news pro-conservative

Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook has published a post in which he defends his social network by the allegations that would be disadvantaged by the cut news favorable to conservatives in the Facebook newsfeed. "We take these allegations in high regard and we are investigating to ascertain the integrity of our product," wrote Facebook CEO. "But so far we have not found any confirmation of the charges. If we realize that something is violating our principles, we would take the necessary countermeasures to remedy."

Zuckerberg calls "the Conservative party leader and all the personalities involved in the political spectrum" to debate on the subject in order to identify "what Facebook is and how to ensure that the platform remains as open as possible." The charges against Zuckerberg remain heavy, to the point that the US Congress has already called for an investigation by the President of the Trade Committee, John Thune.

Moreover, the Guardian worse by claiming it came into possession of documents that show that Facebook is the editorial staff to manually set the display priority in the news feed of the popular social network users.

At the official level, Facebook claims that most of the editorial priorities is determined by its algorithms, which should be to establish the display priority on the basis of data relating to engagement, timeliness, pages to which you are enrolled and geographical location. The algorithm then helps Facebook to identify trending topics for every moment of the day.

But the new Guardian of the documents show, however, how the company relies heavily on the involvement of a small editorial team to determine trending topics. The company would abandon the approach based on algorithms in 2014 after receiving criticism about the improper coverage of the events in Ferguson and between communities of color and police clashes.

The team would be composed of only 12 people, and would manage the injection of the news it deems most important. At the same time, it would provide a "black list", in which to end the news considered not so important. For each day, in addition, the preparation would establish what is the international sensation, on which direct the views in the news feed.

All these hierarchies would be based on the content published by 10 news websites, namely: BBC News, CNN, Fox News, The Guardian, NBC News, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Yahoo News and Yahoo . A document with guidelines also provide Facebook editors of the reference points on how to operate and how to make decisions.

What emerges is a picture resizing technological thickness of Facebook, in an era dominated by the machine learning and automation in distribution methods and the importance of reporting assignment. Facebook, according to documents published by the Guardian, would work somewhat the same way as a traditional newspaper.

This story makes clear the tension within the political debate in the US, when the presidential elections are approaching and the media and opinion leaders try to avert the irrationality and uncertainty that the eventual victory of Donald J. Trump would cause.