Facebook’s caution of seeming biased in opposition to conservatives might have ironically cost it an effort to eliminate that bias. The media sources claim that the social media giant cancelled “Common Ground,” a program that motivated more peaceful communication between people from all over the political realm, over fears that conservatives will blame the firm of prejudice Facebook had carried out over a year’s worth of talking and research but dropped the program in late summer after Joel Kaplan (international policy chief) raised concerns.
The effort allegedly merged various features. It might have changed News Feed rankings to drive posts that were liked, commented, or shared by users all over different political backgrounds. It might also have also downgraded comments that resulted in vitriolic debate. As per the sources, Kaplan lifted objections when Facebook study disclosed that conservative consumers aimed to be more polarized than their left-leaning peers. In attempting to lessen that polarization Facebook might have excessively hurt conservatives, Kaplan claimed.
On a related note, Facebook is carefully extending a function that displays people local information and news, comprising road closures, missing-person alerts, school announcements, and crime reports. Dubbed as “Today In,” the feature shows user data from their cities and towns from sources such as government entities, news outlets, and community groups. Facebook rolled out the service in January 2018 with 6 cities and extended that to 25 moving forward. This week, “Today In” is extending in the US to 400 cities and a handful of other cities in Australia.
The decision comes as Facebook attempts to shake off its status as a breeding ground for elections-meddling & misinformation and instated a place for people & communities to stay informed and come together. Facebook is not paying anybody to comprise posts, nor can a group or business pay to be listed.