Does Facebook Cook The Books In Terms Of “Trending”?

It all started with a story from Gizmodo that cited allegations from several former curators (those are the guys who set the algorithms as to what makes the feed) that they used an “injection tool” to add or bump stories onto the trending module.

Basically, the allegations claim they skewed the feed to favor liberal stories, and keep out conservative sourced articles. The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over media and consumer protection issues, as well as Internet communications, has now sent a letter to Mark Zuckerberg wanting answers.

Specifically, they want to know if the allegations are true, what exactly is the process to determine what makes the feed, and who has the final say in the matter. Facebook responded that they look forward to answering all the questions.

ABC’s Lana Zak joined us from Washington D.C.