The Wall Street Journal is reporting evidence that Facebook discriminates against conservative news sites. Their study is based on analysis of Facebook data as well as documents and interviews of Facebook insiders.
Link to the story here (paywall).
The article mentioned an internal Facebook study of the extent to which conservative sites have been suppressed:
“The study, dubbed a “political ideology analysis,” suggested the company had been suppressing the traffic of major far-right publishers, even though that wasn’t its intent, according to the documents. “Very conservative” sites, it found, would benefit the most if the tools were removed, with Breitbart’s traffic increasing an estimated 20%, Washington Times’ 18%, Western Journal’s 16% and Epoch Times’ by 11%, according to the documents.”
Interestingly, it is conservative publishers that generate the highest level of engagement among Facebook users.
“Right-wing sites are consistently among the best-performing publishers on the platform in terms of engagement, according to data from research firm NewsWhip. That is one reason Facebook also is criticized by people on the left, who say Facebook’s algorithms reward far-right content.”
Read the whole thing!