Facebook: Complaining and Explaining

May 10, 2016

A stiff upper lip type told me eons ago: “Never complain, never explain.” I just read “Facebook denies Claims It Suppressed Conservative and Controversial New on Its Trending Topics Sidebar.” If the write up is accurate, Facebook may be explaining and complaining.

I read:

The company had been accused of encouraging the humans that run its “Trending Topics” sidebar to suppress conservative stories and those from right-of-centre outlets. But the company has “found no evidence that the anonymous allegations are true”, according to a post from its head of search Tom Stocky.

The write up quoted Facebook as an “it” which said:

It said also that does not “insert stories artificially into trending topics, and do not instruct our reviewers to do so”. While it’s possible for reviewers to stick certain topics together – such as #StarWars and #?maythefourthbewithyou – a topic must already be trending for it to be added to the panel, Mr Stocky claimed.

Interesting. Why would a giant in social media let humans interfere with smart software? But why would Jeff Bezos buy a newspaper?

Alas, no answers and certainly no complaining or explaining from Harrod’s Creek.

Stephen E Arnold, May 10, 2016

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Facebook, News

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.