Facebook's Left-Leaning Bias

[Adam White]

Well the algorithm also features items that get more clicks. Overall liberal sources get more clicks because more people on fb tend to be liberal mainly due to age demographics. However, if you are a raging conservative you will be shown more similar right-leaning articles because it knows your preferences. If anything can be said about fb article selections it is that there is A TON of confirmation bias being perpetuated across the platform. Especially since people tend to only follow those friends with similar views on their feeds. I've been guilty of that myself but I only unfollow friends who never post anything but political opinions especially when they are "that crazy conservative uncle" type. Ultimately, if you don't like looking at liberal news sources of fb then get off fb. They are a private company. Maybe get on Fox's social media site?... oh wait, that's right.

I'm not saying you're wrong, these are honest questions:

1) Do you know that for a fact about the algorithm Facebook uses or are you assuming it?

2) Do you have statistics that show that Facebook users tend to be more liberal than conservative? In my experience (totally not based on anything other than that), I see lots of conservatives - though my friends tend to be more liberal. Facebook seems kind of universal/ubiquitous at this point, so I would assume its users would mimic the general population.

[simms3]

This is so stupid...I will see at least 3 friends who work at Facebook and another that works at Instagram tonight and I won't even start to ask them if this is true because it's so obviously not.  Just another example of a literally stupid Fox News viewer who happens to be in the Millennial demographic group (sadly, I do shed a tear for this) trying desperately to appeal to the stupidity of other Fox News viewers who eat this load of literal cocka up as if it were in the Bible.

On another note, it *SHOULD* be true.  If you are trying to find "conservative bias" that suits the answers you yourself want in trending science, entertainment, and political articles/events/findings, then you deserve to have "real/authentic" information disguised in your silly little mind as "liberal" exclusively thrown your way so that you can begin to grow a fucking brain and gain actual information.

OMG

[CoastalJax]

Well the algorithm also features items that get more clicks. Overall liberal sources get more clicks because more people on fb tend to be liberal mainly due to age demographics. However, if you are a raging conservative you will be shown more similar right-leaning articles because it knows your preferences. If anything can be said about fb article selections it is that there is A TON of confirmation bias being perpetuated across the platform. Especially since people tend to only follow those friends with similar views on their feeds. I've been guilty of that myself but I only unfollow friends who never post anything but political opinions especially when they are "that crazy conservative uncle" type. Ultimately, if you don't like looking at liberal news sources of fb then get off fb. They are a private company. Maybe get on Fox's social media site?... oh wait, that's right.

I'm not saying you're wrong, these are honest questions:

1) Do you know that for a fact about the algorithm Facebook uses or are you assuming it?

2) Do you have statistics that show that Facebook users tend to be more liberal than conservative? In my experience (totally not based on anything other than that), I see lots of conservatives - though my friends tend to be more liberal. Facebook seems kind of universal/ubiquitous at this point, so I would assume its users would mimic the general population.

To an extent, #2 can be inferred (although granted that certainly doesn't mean it's proven) due to the fact that the majority of people who use Facebook are of millennial age, and the majority of millennials lean more toward liberal ideologies.

[TheCat]

You always have something to say that's very 'meaningful' MMR. You never fail to disappoint; keep up the good work...

Well, looks like the spork is calling the spoon a kettle.

Do you want to place a bet that Murdoch is about to rebrand myspace as the social media site for crazies who think they are conservative? 

[JeffreyS]

Well the algorithm also features items that get more clicks. Overall liberal sources get more clicks because more people on fb tend to be liberal mainly due to age demographics. However, if you are a raging conservative you will be shown more similar right-leaning articles because it knows your preferences. If anything can be said about fb article selections it is that there is A TON of confirmation bias being perpetuated across the platform. Especially since people tend to only follow those friends with similar views on their feeds. I've been guilty of that myself but I only unfollow friends who never post anything but political opinions especially when they are "that crazy conservative uncle" type. Ultimately, if you don't like looking at liberal news sources of fb then get off fb. They are a private company. Maybe get on Fox's social media site?... oh wait, that's right.

I'm not saying you're wrong, these are honest questions:

1) Do you know that for a fact about the algorithm Facebook uses or are you assuming it?

2) Do you have statistics that show that Facebook users tend to be more liberal than conservative? In my experience (totally not based on anything other than that), I see lots of conservatives - though my friends tend to be more liberal. Facebook seems kind of universal/ubiquitous at this point, so I would assume its users would mimic the general population.

To an extent, #2 can be inferred (although granted that certainly doesn't mean it's proven) due to the fact that the majority of people who use Facebook are of millennial age, and the majority of millennials lean more toward liberal ideologies.

The average age of FB user in the US is 40 http://smallbusiness.chron.com/breakdown-facebook-users-age-63280.html

[simms3]

Which is a whole generation less than all the major television news outlets, all of which have average viewer ages in the 60s.  40 is still surprising.  That's probably average age of user, which everyone is a basic user these days, including grandparents.  But daily and moderate to heavy users likely skews A LOT younger, probably somewhere between 23 and 32 if I had to guess.

This is the age group that actually uses an outlet like Facebook as a news source.  People 40+ and especially 50 or 60+ are definitely using Facebook more sparingly, mainly to post occasionally on a child or friend's wall, etc, and are still going to MSNBC,CNN, and Fox News for their news.  Translation, "clicks" are still driven by the younger set even if FB average age is 40.

[simms3]

In fact if you read the article, data is from 2011 (irrelevant at this point) and Ad Age starts to see a dip at age 30.

[UNFurbanist]

Well the algorithm also features items that get more clicks. Overall liberal sources get more clicks because more people on fb tend to be liberal mainly due to age demographics. However, if you are a raging conservative you will be shown more similar right-leaning articles because it knows your preferences. If anything can be said about fb article selections it is that there is A TON of confirmation bias being perpetuated across the platform. Especially since people tend to only follow those friends with similar views on their feeds. I've been guilty of that myself but I only unfollow friends who never post anything but political opinions especially when they are "that crazy conservative uncle" type. Ultimately, if you don't like looking at liberal news sources of fb then get off fb. They are a private company. Maybe get on Fox's social media site?... oh wait, that's right.

I'm not saying you're wrong, these are honest questions:

1) Do you know that for a fact about the algorithm Facebook uses or are you assuming it?

2) Do you have statistics that show that Facebook users tend to be more liberal than conservative? In my experience (totally not based on anything other than that), I see lots of conservatives - though my friends tend to be more liberal. Facebook seems kind of universal/ubiquitous at this point, so I would assume its users would mimic the general population.

Admittedly the 2nd point was inferred. Although, the article posted by JefferyS seems to point to a similar conclusion. I never meant to say that it was only 20 and 30 somethings using it just that it is younger than traditional media which Simms summed up pretty nicely.

To the first point, I don't have the source off hand but I took a media class at UNF a year back and we talked about fb click logic and that was basically the main assertion. There was an associated study along with it (since I don't think fb would openly put all their code secrets out there) but that is where I was basing that statement off of. But hey, who knows? Since I go to a University I must also have my brain being filled with the "liberal agenda" there too right?! lol 

[brainstormer]

This is such a non-issue. Facebook is a private company and can do whatever it wants with regards to its algorithms or lack of algorithms. How is my choosing to read news on Facebook any different than my choosing to turn on my TV and select Fox News or CNN? The idea that Congress should get involved is so stupid. Perhaps Congress should STFU and just do their jobs. Solve real problems instead of making up problems that don't exist.

[spuwho]

There will never be one sole source of information that is absolutely accurate every time they report something.

As we learned in college history, you review all of the reports at hand, anything that is common between all of them has a higher chance of being accurate.

Even today we stumble across new information that offsets a report that was thought to be credible at its time.

[Sentient]

JBTripper posts the core issue here of why this is diabolical:

"This would all be fine if Facebook was up front about it. It's not fine, though, because Facebook doesn't have an "editorial" section. It doesn't have a "stories picked out for you" section. It has a "trending" section, and they even use little upward-climbing graph arrow icons that seem to say "these things are being placed here based on data gleaned from our users." Which we now know is a lie."

And on queau, the usual suspects appear, instead of actually addressing the core issue - the falsification of what is actually "trending", go to their usual bag of dissembling, straw-manning, obfuscating, scapegoating...

Fox News! Breitbart! Only idiots get news! So what!!!! [my favorite argument to see... lol] Nothing here!  Move along!

Every.Single.Time.

It's highly amusing.

Trending

verb (used without object)
4.to have a general tendency, as events, conditions, etc.
5.to tend to take a particular direction; extend in some direction indicated.
6.to emerge as a popular trend; be currently popular: trending topics on the Internet; words that have trended this year.
7.to veer or turn off in a specified direction, as a river, mountain range, etc.

What about the word trending suggests to anyone that something less than the MOST POPULAR actual stories be presented?

And what does it say if this is NOT the case?

It's hard for me to say whether you are malicious in your activities or actually are just the useful dupes of the left...  thoughts?

[Sentient]

http://gizmodo.com/facebook-admits-its-trending-section-includes-topics-no-1776319308

[JBTripper]

Well the algorithm also features items that get more clicks. Overall liberal sources get more clicks because more people on fb tend to be liberal mainly due to age demographics. However, if you are a raging conservative you will be shown more similar right-leaning articles because it knows your preferences. If anything can be said about fb article selections it is that there is A TON of confirmation bias being perpetuated across the platform. Especially since people tend to only follow those friends with similar views on their feeds. I've been guilty of that myself but I only unfollow friends who never post anything but political opinions especially when they are "that crazy conservative uncle" type. Ultimately, if you don't like looking at liberal news sources of fb then get off fb. They are a private company. Maybe get on Fox's social media site?... oh wait, that's right.

You're talking about the newsfeed, which you are right about being a pit of confirmation bias. But the newsfeed is not related to this at all. The issue is the "trending" section, which is not tailored to your interests, behaviors or connections. It purports to be a representation of the top stories of the day across Facebook, but this story alleges that that is a lie.

[JBTripper]

This is so stupid...I will see at least 3 friends who work at Facebook and another that works at Instagram tonight and I won't even start to ask them if this is true because it's so obviously not.  Just another example of a literally stupid Fox News viewer who happens to be in the Millennial demographic group (sadly, I do shed a tear for this) trying desperately to appeal to the stupidity of other Fox News viewers who eat this load of literal cocka up as if it were in the Bible.

On another note, it *SHOULD* be true.  If you are trying to find "conservative bias" that suits the answers you yourself want in trending science, entertainment, and political articles/events/findings, then you deserve to have "real/authentic" information disguised in your silly little mind as "liberal" exclusively thrown your way so that you can begin to grow a fucking brain and gain actual information.

OMG

Who said anything about trying to find conservative bias? You can't find news without bias, because it doesn't exist. The best an informed person can hope to do is to identify known facts, seek out opposing viewpoints and make a decision for themselves. I think what you're arguing is that people attempting to inform themselves should only have easy access to one viewpoint in order to ensure more people come around to your point of view, which is intellectually bankrupt. Come to think of it, that's a fair description of Facebook, isn't it?

And it's caca, and it's figurative.

[UNFurbanist]

JBTripper posts the core issue here of why this is diabolical:

"This would all be fine if Facebook was up front about it. It's not fine, though, because Facebook doesn't have an "editorial" section. It doesn't have a "stories picked out for you" section. It has a "trending" section, and they even use little upward-climbing graph arrow icons that seem to say "these things are being placed here based on data gleaned from our users." Which we now know is a lie."

And on queau, the usual suspects appear, instead of actually addressing the core issue - the falsification of what is actually "trending", go to their usual bag of dissembling, straw-manning, obfuscating, scapegoating...

Fox News! Breitbart! Only idiots get news! So what!!!! [my favorite argument to see... lol] Nothing here!  Move along!

Every.Single.Time.

It's highly amusing.

Trending

verb (used without object)
4.to have a general tendency, as events, conditions, etc.
5.to tend to take a particular direction; extend in some direction indicated.
6.to emerge as a popular trend; be currently popular: trending topics on the Internet; words that have trended this year.
7.to veer or turn off in a specified direction, as a river, mountain range, etc.

What about the word trending suggests to anyone that something less than the MOST POPULAR actual stories be presented?

And what does it say if this is NOT the case?

It's hard for me to say whether you are malicious in your activities or actually are just the useful dupes of the left...  thoughts?

Okay. Well my trending section occasionally tells me that "Florida man" stories are trending. Am I suppose to believe that fb is trying to make me hate my home state? It sometimes works... But is it some type of conspiracy? I doubt it. That section also shows me everything from quite legitimate big world/national events all the way to stories about UNF. Do they certainly aren't all macro level trends. Maybe from friends?

 Truthfully I have no flipping idea how they pick the trending topics. Although, I have definitely seen a few articles from the blaze on mine (and even thought "is this suppose to be news?") so is it some giant liberal conspiracy? Doubtful.