Facebook Finds no Bias Against Conservative Viewpoints; Thune Pleased With Inquiry

May 25, 2016 by John Hendel and Dibya Sarkar|Capitol Hill

Facebook didn't find any evidence of alleged bias against conservative political viewpoints in the website's trending news stories feature, but it said it "could not fully exclude the possibility of isolated improper actions or unintentional bias in the implementation of our guidelines and polices," Colin Stretch, the company's general counsel, said in a Monday blog post. A recent Gizmodo story kicked off the controversy against Facebook that also prompted Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., to send a letter to the company inquiring about its practices (see 1605100032). But Thune faced some backlash from media and First Amendment experts, who said that government had no business getting involved (see 1605110048 and 1605190029). Thune, who met with Stretch a week ago, released the 12-page response from Facebook Monday and told reporters on Tuesday that he saw a "good outcome" from his inquiry. “I thought Facebook was very straightforward with their response,” Thune told reporters. “They took it seriously. They’ve adopted some changes in their procedures. Our whole issue was to make sure the way that their description of what they were doing actually matched what they were doing. And I think what this revealed was, there were some issues that they needed to address, and I think they’ve made some modifications. We’re happy with the way it came out. I think it gave greater clarity to consumers and created more transparency for Facebook and I think they made some corrective changes.” Thune didn't foreclose possible further assessment: "We’re open to more information if somebody came forward with it." But he has said that he saw no reason for regulatory action against Facebook (see 1605170068). In his post, Stretch said his company is making several changes to the "Trending Topics" feature, including refresher training for reviewers, more controls and oversight of the review team and clearer terms in its guidelines (see 1605120058).