Senator demands clarification from Facebook due to censorship of “popular news”

Republican U.S. Senator John Thune sent an official letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about alleged censorship of the Trending Topics section of Facebook, which contains the most popular content among users. The fact that the editors of Facebook hid from the section of the article about the Republicans, on May 9, was reported by Gizmodo.

The letter asks if editors have removed articles about Republicans from Trending Topics and added articles that did not gain popularity among users to the rating. The senator asked to disclose information about such decisions, if they were made and if the relevant data is stored by the company.

Thune also asked Zuckerberg to reveal the structure of the Trending News department and name the decision maker. In addition, the senator demanded a list of the "strict rules" on maintaining neutrality, which were mentioned in Facebook's response to the Gizmodo post, and asked when these rules were introduced.

The letter notes that if the information about the censorship is true, Facebook's claims of political impartiality are misleading the public.

Mark Zuckerberg must provide answers to Thune by May 24. The senator also asked the entrepreneur to ensure the cooperation of his subordinates with the staff of the Senate Committee on Commerce, which is in charge of communication issues.

• On May 9, Gizmodo, citing two former editors of Trending News, reported that Facebook employees influence the content of the section, which is believed to be generated automatically. In particular, the editors of the section allegedly removed news about republican politicians from the rating. Facebook denied these claims.