Mark Zuckerberg finds common ground with conservative leaders

Mark Zuckerberg met with conservative leaders this week to address the Trending Topics controversy and remind them that there's a place for conservative voices at Facebook.

|
Manu Fernandez/AP/File
Facebook chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg speaks during a 2015 conference in Barcelona, Spain. Mr. Zuckerberg met with conservative leaders such as radio host Glenn Beck on Wednesday to discuss claims that its 'trending topics' feature is biased against their viewpoints.

In an effort to address concerns that Facebook has a conservative bias, company founder Mark Zuckerberg met with a dozen conservative leaders this week to talk about the issue, making good on his word that he intends to "have a direct conversation about what Facebook stands for." 

The meeting was closed to journalists, but reports from participants suggest that Mr. Zuckerberg was successful in finding common ground with conservative leaders.

Conservative media personality Glenn Beck told reporters that Zuckerberg had made him feel more welcome than his own party had of late.

"I thought it was great," Mr. Beck told Time magazine. "I thought they were sincere. And as I was leaving, I thought: 'What company has done that with conservatives?' Especially a media company."

Facebook has been taking heat for the past several weeks after reports from an anonymous former employee surfaced in April that alleged Facebook’s Trending Topics box, which highlights current events stories, hides stories from conservative news sites, while "injecting" stories from other media outlets into the feed.

In response to the allegations, Zuckerberg said that, "Trending Topics is designed to surface the most newsworthy and popular conversations on Facebook. We have rigorous guidelines that do not permit the prioritization of one viewpoint over another or the suppression of political perspectives."

The guidelines Facebook uses for choosing what’s trending somewhat discount the social media giant's public statements that there is no human bias involved in maintaining it. In addition to the Trending Topics algorithm, Facebook staff choose and curate topics and articles in order of importance and relevancy. Facebook says it's conducting a full investigation to see if any of its guidelines or principles have been violated.

"The reality is, conservatives and Republicans have always been an important part of Facebook," Zuckerberg said in a statement after the meeting. "Donald Trump has more fans on Facebook than any other presidential candidate. And Fox News drives more interactions on its Facebook page than any other news outlet in the world. It's not even close."

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Mark Zuckerberg finds common ground with conservative leaders
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2016/0520/Mark-Zuckerberg-finds-common-ground-with-conservative-leaders
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe