Report: Facebook has 'significant work' to address 'bias'

A report authorized by Facebook touts "some steps" the company has taken to address the complaints of bias against conservatives but also admits "there is still significant work to be done."

Facebook, along with other tech companies, long have faced complaints that their platforms have embedded biases that favor liberal viewpoints.

As part of the company's response, it engaged former Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., and a team of experts at the legal company Covington & Burling "to conduct a review of concerns regarding perceived bias by Facebook against conservative organizations, individuals, and lawmakers."

The report said "it is up to Facebook" how it will respond to the report, but the investigators say their work is not yet done.

Kyl wrote that for its review, the study considered "conservatives' to include "political conservatives, people of orthodox religious views, libertarians, pro-lifers, traditionalists, Republicans, and free speech advocates."

His group interviewed 133 and then conducted various follow-up interviews.

The concerns focused on six topics, including the concern that the company's algorithms and content distribution methods "prioritize content" to suppress conservatives.

One significant change by the company came in January 2018 when it changed its algorithm, and conservative outlets immediately saw their traffic from Facebook plunge.

Critics charged the change "disproportionately decreased the reach of conservative news content."

There also were concerns about Facebook's attempts to use a panel of "fact-checkers" comprised of mostly left-leaning organizations such as Snopes, PolitiFact and the Associated Press.

Also of concern are the company's "hate" speech designations, with Facebook labeling some First Amendment-protected content as "hate speech.

"The term 'hate speech' is itself controversial, insofar as it may incorrectly ascribe motive in many cases," the report said.

Further concerns were raised over content enforcement that is biased against conservative viewpoints.

"Many said they believe that conservative content is affected by adverse content enforcement actions more frequently than liberal content," the report said.

Ad policies were targeted with similar concerns, as well as the company's ad enforcement mechanisms.

Also of concern was the prevalence of left-leaning views among the company's executives and the majority of its employees, the report said.

"Many of our interviewees' concerns about Facebook's content policies stemmed from their belief that the employees writing and enforcing Facebook's policies are biased against conservative viewpoints," the report found.

The report said the company is trying to expand its transparency, including hiring staff to work with appeals of its decisions to remove some content, "including staff dedicated to working with right-of-center organizations and leaders."

One immediate change that was revealed in the report was that Facebook now will allow some advertisements showing medical tubes connected to the human body.

Its previous ban "resulted in the rejection of pro-life ads focused on survival stories of infants born before full-term."

The report noted that Facebook's "popularity and ubiquity" means it has the "potential to restrict free expression," and this "is a danger that must be taken very seriously."

The report pointed out that "no one has a right to not feel offended or to be immune from criticism," and Facebook "has recognized the importance of our assessment."

"We will continue to analyze the issues that conservatives are most concerned about," Kyl wrote.

Axios cited a memo from Nick Clegg, a Facebook official for communications, who wrote: "[E]ven if we could craft them (policies) in a way that pleased all sides, when dealing with such nuanced issues, involving policies that apply to billions of posts, we will inevitably make some bad calls, some of which may appear to strike harder at conservatives. That's why it is so important that we work to make sure this process is free of bias, intended or not."

CNBC pointed out the report was labeled "interim," and it "found the leading social media platform has a ways to go to earn back conservative users' trust."

The release of the report enraged Madihha Ahussain of the group Muslim Advocates.

A statement released by the organization claimed Kyl is "a man with a long history of support anti-Muslim bigots" and charged that the document was no more than a smokescreen to hide the company's decision to "allow violent, white nationalist content."

The group's statement demanded Facebook create a permanent "infrastructure" that "will focus on halting the spread of deadly, white nationalist rhetoric."

Executives from Facebook and several other tech companies such as Google and Twitter have faced lawmakers in recent months to defend their content practices.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., proposed a plan that would link legal protections for tech companies to voluntary audits that would assess whether their platforms' algorithms and content removal practices are "politically neutral."

WND long has reported on the bias of tech companies, including last winter when a coalition of conservative groups asked Attorney General William Barr to investigate.

"Such sweeping power, combined with near monopolistic dominance in the marketplace, and in conjunction with deep one-sided liberal partisan bias within all the organizations, is cause for alarm," a letter the coalition sent to Barr explained.

Media Research Center President Brent Bozell wrote that the tech giants "present a threat not merely to conservatives in the United States, but indeed our free market economic system and the very viability of the U.S. political system."

"Respecting these entities' own constitutional rights, we believe there nevertheless is ample probable cause of antitrust violations and of conspiracy to violate the constitutional rights of conservatives, and possible collusion to violate laws governing America's campaign finance system and elections," he said.

The signatures joining Bozell's included Saul Anuzis of the 60 Plus Association, Gary Bauer of American Values, Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage, Susan Carleson of the American Civil Rights Union, Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness, William Donohue of the Catholic League, Gene Mills of the Louisiana Family Forum, Terry Schilling of the American Principles Project and Tim Wildmon of the American Family Association.

The leaders of the more than 40 groups who signed the letter have "witnessed first hand the bias of these organizations. Facebook, Twitter, and Google/YouTube represent existential threats to the conservative movement and indeed American society as a whole."

"Never in human history have companies been this large and influential. They have the ability to control so much of what we read and say every moment of the day – on a global scale. Their abuses pose a growing, massive threat to the ideals of free speech that this nation was founded on," wrote Bozell.