Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is in damage-control mode as he prepares to meet with a dozen conservative thought leaders today to address concerns about alleged liberal bias.
The chart that shows why Mark Zuckerberg is hosting Glenn Beck and fellow conservatives at Facebook today
This poll shows a dramatic drop in Republicans’ views of Facebook since bias allegations surfaced.
Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images
Anonymous allegations first reported by Gizmodo stoked nagging fears among some conservatives that the social network filters information through a particular prism that is pro-immigration, pro-LGBT rights and supportive of other progressive ideals.
YouGov
Zuckerberg has said, “Facebook is not biased!” in several different ways. Facebook has offered up details about how it uses algorithms and human curators — not personal opinions — to decide what to feature as a Trending Topic.
And yet, Facebook’s reputation appears to have taken a hit. This chart from YouGov shows a 68 percent drop in Republicans’ perceptions of Facebook since the May 9 revelations, based on YouGov’s daily interviews with 4,800 people.
“Mark Zuckerberg needs to make it clear to conservatives that Facebook is an unbiased platform, an unfiltered platform,” said political strategist Vincent Harris, who advised Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s 2016 presidential campaign. “If that’s not the case, he needs to tell us if he wants Facebook to be something that gets into editorializing and picking and choosing which kind of media people see, based on policy and based on bias.”
Zuckerberg will meet with, among others, Glenn Beck of TheBlaze television network, former Bush White House Press Secretary and co-anchor of Fox News Channel’s “The Five” Dana Perino, CNN conservative commentator S.E. Cupp and Kristen Soltis Anderson.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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