Facebook's 'Trending Topics' flaws due to ill-managed group

New York: It was in January 2014 when social media giant Facebook started its ‘trending topics’ platform to make its millions of users aware of the popular current events. The step apparently was taken to make people rely on FB for trending topics rather than hunting it on search engine Google or micro-blogging website Twitter.

Things went smooth until the Silicon Valley company faced allegations of deliberately suppressing conservative news from reflecting on its Trending Topics.

Going deep to the trending topics controversy, it was found that Facebook’s employees were never given any instructions to censor news on the site and in fact, it wasn’t easy for them even if they wish doing so.

Few former and current employees of the company confessed in an interview to a leading website that the ‘trending topic’ column of Facebook is managed by an ill-managed group, which is made up largely of recent college graduates with little work experience.

The influential newspaper said the Trending List on the social network was skewed by individual judgment and not institutional bias.

This led to several qualms in the reflection of trending news and eventually raising questions over the credibility of Facebook’s feature.