Facebook recently came under fire from Twitterers, partisans, activists, journalists and pundits after Gizmodo accused the social network giant's "news curators" for actively suppressing conservative news stories and topics.

In response to allegations, a Facebook vice president responded saying it has "found no evidence" to support the claims. Facebook is taking allegations that conservative new were filtered out "very seriously," a spokesperson for the social media giant said Monday, May 9.

A former journalist who worked on the project divulged that workers averted conservative topics such as CPAC gathering, Rand Paul and Mitt Romney from appearing in the eminent "Trending News" section. This was done despite the fact that these topics were actually trending among Facebook users.

Sen. John Thune, chairman of the US Senate Commerce Committee, which manages communications and internet is shocked to discover that bias may play a role in deciding what trending news show up on the Facebook pages of Facebook users across the world.

Senator John Thune has requested answers to some of Gizmodo's accusations. In a letter signed by the Senator, the committee seeks answers to allegations including:

2) Have Facebook news curators manipulated the content of the Trending Topics section, either by focusing on news stories related to conservative views or by inserting non-trending content?

3) What procedure is Facebook following to investigate claims of politically motivated manipulation of news stories in their Trending Topics section? Moreover, if these claims are proved, what steps will Facebook take in order to hold the responsible individuals on the hook?

The letter further goes on to identify Facebook's sham in a rather striking manner.

VP of Search Tom Stocky took to Facebook on Tuesday, May 10 morning in a bid to address the allegations.

Stocky debunked reports alleging that Facebook news curators manipulated Trending Topics with intentions to "suppress stories of interest to conservatives." Stocky noted that Facebook had strict guidelines in place to avoid this kind of thing, thus any violation was the fault of individual employees and not Facebook policy, reports BGR.

Although Facebook has firmly denied the claims made by anonymous sources, Thune has requested more details in his letter.

What's worth noting here is that this is a GOP-controlled committee asking the questions. If Facebook is suppressing more conservative stories, this would obviously spell concern for Republicans.

Moreover, it's a part of a larger narrative of Facebook advocating the left wing. In April, an internal poll of Facebook employees divulged that some of them thought the social network giant should make use of its power to stop President Trump.

The Committee's letter seeks a response from Facebook until May 24. Hopefully Facebook will be able to clear up this issue on the record.

Topics Facebook, Trending News