Facebook: No evidence of bias fashionable issues, but still going to make changes

Hoping to end the controversy to bed, Facebook announced Monday that an internal investigation has revealed "no evidence of systematic political bias in the selection or prominence of stories Trending Topics included in the count."

The issue hit the headlines at the start of last week after Gizmodo reported allegations by a former employee that the company suppressed news and conservative points of view.

The social networking giant said data analysis carried out as part of his research showed that "conservatives and liberal themes are approved as trending topics in virtually identical rates."

However, he admitted in a statement that its investigation "could not totally exclude the possibility of improper actions isolated or unintentional bias in the application of our guidelines or policies."

With this in mind, Facebook said that "minimize the risk that human judgment is involved" by conducting refresher courses for all employees and the implementation of controls and "additional" monitoring throughout the review team.

He also said he will stop using several systems to create Trending Topics, including its so-called "1k list", a collection of 1,000 websites had been using to identify the relevance of a story; Meanwhile top-10 list of news agencies to decide newsworthiness of an article; and RSS feeds used to supplement the algorithm that generates the Trending Topics section.

The conclusion of the investigation of Facebook follows a meeting last week where CEO Mark Zuckerberg discusses allegations of bias press with prominent conservative commentators. Glenn Beck, meanwhile, was pleased that Facebook was not intentionally participate in any dubious practices as have their Trending Topics.

The controversy also caught the attention of Sen. John Thune, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, which expressed concern about the allegations. However, after a recent meeting with an executive of Facebook, Thune seemed generally satisfied with the actions of the company.

In a statement issued on Monday, Thune said Facebook had been "explicit about how it is to determine the issues of fashion, and steps taken to minimize the risk of bias of individual human judgment," adding, "The seriousness with which Facebook has treated these allegations and his desire to serve as an open platform for all points of view is obvious and encouraging, and I hope that the actions of the company to fulfill their public rhetoric ".

However, he noted that after the meeting, it was clear in its view that the system of Facebook for Trending Topics "was based on human judgment, and not just a more automated process previously recognized."

Still, Facebook will be hoping their prompt response to the allegations, and the willingness to discuss the issue with the parts connected in an apparently open, eventually causing the story to let news sites, including, of course, his own.