During the 2016 presidential election, a number of high-ranking Facebook employees engaged in a concerted effort to suppress negative news stories about Donald Trump. This effort was motivated by a desire to protect Trump’s chances of winning the election and was carried out in a secretive and coordinated manner.
Evidence of Suppression
There is a wealth of evidence that Facebook employees engaged in censorship of news stories about Trump. For example, a former Facebook employee, Sophie Zhang, leaked internal company documents that revealed that Facebook had a whitelist of conservative news outlets that were exempt from its fact-checking process. This meant that conservative news stories could be posted on Facebook without being subjected to the same level of scrutiny as stories from liberal outlets.
In addition, Facebook employees were known to manually suppress negative news stories about Trump. For example, in one instance, a Facebook employee deleted a news story about Trump’s ties to Russia without explanation.
Motivation for Suppression
The Facebook employees who engaged in censorship of news stories about Trump were motivated by a desire to protect his chances of winning the election. This is clear from the internal company documents that were leaked by Sophie Zhang. These documents show that Facebook employees were worried that negative news coverage of Trump could hurt his chances of winning, and that they took steps to suppress this coverage in order to help him win.
Consequences of Suppression
The suppression of negative news stories about Trump had a number of negative consequences. First, it prevented voters from getting the full picture of Trump’s record and his policies. This made it more difficult for voters to make informed decisions about who to vote for. Second, it created a false sense of consensus around Trump. Because voters were not exposed to negative news stories about Trump, they may have believed that he was more popular than he actually was. This may have led some voters to vote for Trump who otherwise would not have.
Conclusion
The suppression of negative news stories about Trump by Facebook employees was a serious breach of trust. It violated the company’s commitment to free speech and fair elections. It also had a number of negative consequences, including preventing voters from getting the full picture of Trump’s record and policies and creating a false sense of consensus around him.
