WP: Ex-Facebook staff say social network buried conservative news, raising new questions about its political influence

Washington Post: The great irony of the tech blog Gizmodo’s revelation that Facebook’s trending topic curators weeded out stories about Facebook or about issues popular with conservatives is that Gizmodo’s story therefore won’t end up on Facebook’s list of trending topics. After all, the report, which suggests that the social media behemoth’s team filtered out stories on conservative topics from conservative sites, will most certainly be very, very popular with conservatives.

What we’re talking about here is that little box at the upper right of your Facebook page — the short list of news topics that are being discussed on Facebook at the moment. They’re clearly tailored to the user; as I write, mine include stories about New York (where I live) and politics, which I would assume that a surgeon in Dallas probably wouldn’t see. Since Facebook has one-sixth of the world using it every day, pretty much everything is being talked about to some extent. The company uses an automatic system (an algorithm) to surface what’s currently popular, and a team of staffers then further curates the list to tailor it to meet particular standards.

And there’s the problem. Gizmodo quotes several former curators suggesting that conservative news stories would be booted from the automatically generated list of trending stories for two reasons. One was if the story came from a conservative-leaning site like Breitbart or Newsmax, in which case curators were told to find the same story on a mainstream media site, if possible. The other was if the curator didn’t want to include the story or didn’t recognize the story as important. It’s hard to know the extent to which the latter judgments took place, but one of the former curators — a conservative — told Gizmodo, “I believe it had a chilling effect on conservative news.”

That’s problematic, for obvious reasons. (Gizmodo notes that it’s not clear whether this is still happening, since the trending news algorithm is constantly being tweaked, and that it’s not clear if liberal news was similarly affected.) The bigger question is the extent to which Facebook overlays another filter on top of what you see — and the extent to which that can influence political decisions.

We already knew (even if we sometimes forget) that there are a lot of layers of filtration that occur before you see anything at Facebook.com. There’s the filtering that you yourself do, picking friends, clicking links, posting stuff to your wall. There’s the main Facebook algorithm, that puts things in your feed.

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Former Facebook Workers: We Routinely Suppressed Conservative News

Since its inception, I’ve noticed that Facebook highlights stories that tend to slant left. I never recall it highlighting something that would make a right-wing politician or pundit look good. It prefers instead to bash people such as Donald Trump and Ann Coulter.

Gizmodo: Facebook workers routinely suppressed news stories of interest to conservative readers from the social network’s influential “trending” news section, according to a former journalist who worked on the project. This individual says that workers prevented stories about the right-wing CPAC gathering, Mitt Romney, Rand Paul, and other conservative topics from appearing in the highly-influential section, even though they were organically trending among the site’s users.

Several former Facebook “news curators,” as they were known internally, also told Gizmodo that they were instructed to artificially “inject” selected stories into the trending news module, even if they weren’t popular enough to warrant inclusion—or in some cases weren’t trending at all. The former curators, all of whom worked as contractors, also said they were directed not to include news about Facebook itself in the trending module.

In other words, Facebook’s news section operates like a traditional newsroom, reflecting the biases of its workers and the institutional imperatives of the corporation. Imposing human editorial values onto the lists of topics an algorithm spits out is by no means a bad thing—but it is in stark contrast to the company’s claims that the trending module simply lists “topics that have recently become popular on Facebook.”

These new allegations emerged after Gizmodo last week revealed details about the inner workings of Facebook’s trending news team—a small group of young journalists, primarily educated at Ivy League or private East Coast universities, who curate the “trending” module on the upper-right-hand corner of the site. As we reported last week, curators have access to a ranked list of trending topics surfaced by Facebook’s algorithm, which prioritizes the stories that should be shown to Facebook users in the trending section. The curators write headlines and summaries of each topic, and include links to news sites. The section, which launched in 2014, constitutes some of the most powerful real estate on the internet and helps dictate what news Facebook’s users—167 million in the US alone—are reading at any given moment.

“Depending on who was on shift, things would be blacklisted or trending,” said the former curator. This individual asked to remain anonymous, citing fear of retribution from the company. The former curator is politically conservative, one of a very small handful of curators with such views on the trending team. “I’d come on shift and I’d discover that CPAC or Mitt Romney or Glenn Beck or popular conservative topics wouldn’t be trending because either the curator didn’t recognize the news topic or it was like they had a bias against Ted Cruz.”

The former curator was so troubled by the omissions that they kept a running log of them at the time; this individual provided the notes to Gizmodo. Among the deep-sixed or suppressed topics on the list: former IRS official Lois Lerner, who was accused by Republicans of inappropriately scrutinizing conservative groups; Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker; popular conservative news aggregator the Drudge Report; Chris Kyle, the former Navy SEAL who was murdered in 2013; and former Fox News contributor Steven Crowder. “I believe it had a chilling effect on conservative news,” the former curator said.

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The Concept Of ‘Racism’ Didn’t Exist Before The 1930s

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‘Nothing good ever happens on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd’

WABC: 2 SUSPECTS ARRESTED IN MURDER OF NJIT STUDENT DURING BURGLARY AT FRATERNITY HOUSE

NEWARK, New Jersey (WABC) — Police have made two arrests in the murder of a New Jersey Institute of Technology student killed during a burglary at a fraternity house near the school earlier this week.

The prosecutor on Friday announced murder, burglary and weapons charges against 18-year-old Irvington resident Nafee Cotman and 22-year-old Newark resident Taquan Harris. Cotman was arrested Thursday morning in Irvington, and Harris was arrested late Friday afternoon in Irvington. Both are being held on $1 million bail.

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Police said burglars wearing masks broke into the back door of the house and encountered Micalizzi. They got into a struggle and Micalizzi was shot twice. He later died at the hospital. Police said the burglars took off and tossed their masks down the street.

Micalizzi was a second-year mechanical engineering major on the dean’s list at NJIT. He is originally from Freehold Township in Monmouth County.

“This house and the people in it are a great group of people, the NJIT TKE community. They are all really good kids, never had issues here or anything,” said Christian Tavares, an NJIT student.

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Trump Is Willing To Die For Our Sins

Are you willing to take the lord Donald J. Trump as your personal savior, to walk in his ways, to love him and to follow him?

Every form of personal redemption requires a path, a community and a literature.

Comments to Steve Sailer:

* I suspect Trump’s chances of death or serious injury between now and the election are greater than police officers, firefighters or military personnel overseas. He is literally laying his life on the line for his country.

* I think there have been attempts on him already. But you are correct, it is going to get worse. And as Steve wrote about that guy in Europe, well, he had it coming, right? Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Gonna get nasty…

* DONALD J. TRUMP RESPONSE TO LINDSEY GRAHAM:
“I fully understand why Lindsey Graham cannot support me. If I got beaten as badly as I beat him, and all the other candidates he endorsed, I would not be able to give my support either. Every time I see Lindsey Graham spew hate during interviews I ask why the media never questions how I single-handedly destroyed his hapless run for President. As a candidate who did not receive 1% in his own state – compared to my victory at nearly 40% with many others in the race – he has zero credibility. He was a poor representative and an embarrassment to the great people of South Carolina. Judging by the incompetent way he ran his campaign, it is easy to see why his military strategies have failed so badly — we can’t even beat ISIS!
While I will unify the party, Lindsey Graham has shown himself to be beyond rehabilitation. And like the voters who rejected him, so will I!”
Donald J. Trump

* Russell Moore was part of the Evangelical Immigration Table (EIT), a project of Soros’ National Immigration Forum. The Evangelical Immigration Table was funded partly by Paul Singer (Rubio’s money man), by which I mean he paid for their ads promoting amnesty during the Gang of Eight battle, which was pretty much all that the EIT did.

* Clearly if the term “self-hating” can apply to Jews or gays who dissent from the identity-politics line, then Russell Moore is a “self-hating” Christian.

* Is Moore considered to be on the Left? He was one of the contributors to the notorious “Against Trump” hissy-fit at National Review. He was contemptible enough then; with this he sinks to a new depth.

It’s a great irony that the hysterical reaction to Trump among self-proclaimed “principled conservatives” has exposed how much they’ve always been in it for fame and money. I hope Moore got a thrill from his little NYT byline.

* “This Baptist Charity Is Being Paid Hundreds of Millions to Shelter Child Migrants

Since December, BCFS (Baptist Child and Family Services) has received more than $280 million in federal grants to operate these shelters, according to government records. On July 7, two days before Dinnin met Obama in Dallas, the Department of Health and Human Services awarded BCFS $190,707,505 in a single grant.

The federal grant money for sheltering unaccompanied children, provided by HHS’s Administration for Children and Families, has so far totaled $671 million during the 2014 fiscal year. BCFS has received 40% of those funds, making it the largest recipient of money disbursed to contractors to temporarily house unaccompanied children…

* Christianity is a strange kind of religion.

It is both nativist and anti-nativist.

It arose in a time of Jewish resistance against the Roman Empire. Collaborationist Jews just went along with the Romans. Patriotic Jews wanted to drive the Romans out by any means necessary.

Jesus was more a patriotic Jew and certainly not a collaborationist Jew. He respected the patriotic Jews who were idealistic and willing to die for God and their land.
He had no respect for the collaborationists who just went along to enrich themselves and live well and enjoy privilege.
But He fell out of favor with the patriots as well because He thought the Jews should just leave it up to God. The real battle was a spiritual battle. And vengeance would be God’s.
If Jews were to be very good and give up their wealth and choose holy poverty and prove their goodness in the eyes of God, then God would take care of things. God would send terror upon the bad folks and smite them. According to John, God would even send the 666 beask that was scarier than Godzilla and Mechagodzilla combined.

Jesus saw armed resistance as futile since Romans were so much more powerful in arms. Also, too many key Jews were collaborators. And Romans appointed Herod as king of the Jews. And Herod was a master builder and a mighty tyrant in his own right.

So, how could Jews win? Jesus relied on God. If Jews were really really good, God would take care of it. And for this to happen, Jesus had to be sacrificed as a the Perfect Man. He would not resist the torture and pain. He would take the whupping(though prolly not as horrible as in Gibson’s movie) and then die on the Cross. And then God would open up the heavens, send the angels of vengeance(like in Raiders of the Lost Ark), and kick some butt. But it didn’t happen that way.
Since God didn’t punish the evildoers when Jesus got nailed to the Cross, the idea was that it will happen some day. Who knows when?
The whole idea began as revenge for the Jews against Romans, but since the religion outlasted the Roman Empire, the revelation about Judgement Day took on new meanings. Ironically, even though Jesus wanted to see God smash pagan Rome, the Rome that got smashed was Christian, and the smashing was done by pagans.
Go figure.

Anyway, Christianity began as a religion of resistance. It was to resist the Roman imperialists and the Jewish collaborators. But unlike Zealots who wanted to be like the Viet Cong, Jesus was more into what Gandhi pulled later. Gandhi had numbers on his side. Jesus thought He had God on His side.

St. Paul was a collaborator who used to whup patriotic Jews for the Romans. But he had a change of heart. And he came to serve Jesus. And he wanted to win over Jews, but Jews told him to get lost.

This is when Christianity, which began as a Jewish-nativist religion(and was maintained as such by Peter and his followers), became an anti-nativist religion. Disappointed by his fellow Jews–who also kicked his ass a few times–, Paul decided to turn it into a universal religion for all folks, and to make it palatable to non-Jews, his version didn’t require men to slice off their weenie skins. (That sure helped in spreading the faith.) Paul turned against the Jews and even railed against them. He appealed to Greeks, Romans, Syrians, and other peoples. And when he went among Jews, he favored exile Jews in non-Jewish lands.

But Romans didn’t like it. Romans were for pagan universalism of Roman rule.
It was political universalism that placed huge areas under Roman authority. Religiously, Romans let others worship their own gods.

Romans didn’t like the idea of a new kind of universalism, a spiritual one based on the God of the Jews. Even as Paul appealed to Romans and excoriated Jews, Romans found him bothersome and dangerous.

It was spiritual universalism vs political universalism. Eventually, of course, the two merged under Constantine.

Christianity that developed was dual-in-nature. It was both anti-imperialist and pro-imperialist. To the extent that its originator was a Jew who resisted the Roman imperialists and was killed by them, Christianity was an anti-Roman-imperialist religion. Also, a kind of ‘slave religion’ that morally favored the wretched-of-the-earth, it favored the oppressed over the oppressors.

But on the other hand, Christianity could not have spread so easily if not for Roman Empire’s vast cross-circuitry of roads and trade routes. Paul traveled of foot and by sea all over. He was able to do this cuz of Pax Romana. Also, his Roman citizenship saved him a bunch of times. So, even as he was spreading the faith that originated as anti-imperialism, his very means of spreading it was made possible by the existence of the Empire. In a way, Paul was standing up to Roman power and Roman way. But he wasn’t pure of heart like Jesus. He could be diplomatic, savvy, political, cunning. He knew how to save his own skin. He worked like a salesman. Unlike Jesus, he didn’t seek martyrdom. He tried to avoid it as much as possible.
He knew there was much to gain from Roman power, Roman laws, Roman military power. After all, without Roman imperialism, there would just be chaos and violence all around.

Furthermore, Christianity had its own seeds of imperialism. If indeed Jesus is the Son of One and Only God and if His truth is the only true truth, it means that the entire world must be made to accept His truth. That was justification for imperialism for the Romans and later the Europeans. Indeed, even US slavery was justified along the lines of turning black heathens into Aunt Esthers. And Spanish justified their conquest of the New World on the basis of spreading the faith.

So, Christianity spread via imperialism even though it originated as an act of anti-imperialism. Not only did Christians make a pact with mighty military power(beginning with Romans) but the innate core of Christianity is a kind of spiritual imperialism(very much like Islam that came later). To save the world, the world has to be conquered, and all must be made to share in the faith in the Lord.

Indeed, Moore overlooks the fact that the Christianization of much of the world is the product of Western Imperialism. He also fails to understand that his hope for more Christians-of-color in the West is the product of reverse-imperialism, the invasion of the West by darkie hordes(most of whom will be converted more to rap music and thug culture than religion).

I reject such imperialism and globalism. Imperialism had value long ago when the West did have much to teach the world. Also, there was a time when so many peoples were isolated and had much to gain by being shaken out of their doldrums into the international system dominated by the West, the most advanced folks on earth.

But now, globalism threatens all nations, all cultures, all traditions. It is like a hurricane that threatens the integrity and identity of every nation and civilization.
And for every new Christian convert created by globalism, there are 1000 new fans of Miley Cyrus and other such filth. Besides, the main faith spread by global West is now homomania.

Let non-Christian peoples keep their own cultures and identities. And let Europeans and Americans keep theirs.

* The Liberals in the comments section of The New York Times just had an orgasm at London electing a Muslim for mayor.

It’s weird seeing a bunch of Godless Liberal Atheists who claim they hate religion, yet want to see more Muslims in positions of power.

Why do Atheists want so badly to be ruled over by Muslims? It must be a Cuck fantasy for Atheists to want to live in a society like Syria or Yemen.

Atheists who love Muslims remind me of Feminazis who say there is a war on women, yet they only date thugs or bad boys and do not give nice guys the time of the day.

* Moore is a good example of how the Cult of Compassion could shut off a man’s heart to his fellow brethren.

Moore’s Cult of Compassion is all about the Noble Negro(of To Kill a Mocking Bird). His childlike mind is stuck in the 50s of Jimmy Crow. He has no idea how much this nation has changed. He still seems to think white folks have it all and must share with all the world. He must live in a bubble and be disconnected from reality since so many white people are hurting, largely due to growing diversity.

He is so full of himself, his own goodness, his own precious holiness, and his self-righteous conceit that he is blind to problems faced by real Americans whose needs have been overlooked by idiots like him and other globalists who favor ‘more consumers for my brand(in his care, religion)’ than for what is good for my fellow countrymen.

Moore is too busy looking into the looking glass and muttering ‘mirror mirror on the wall, who is the goody-goodiest of them all’ to realize that America of today isn’t what it was 50 yrs ago. It is now an America where blacks routinely beat up and bully whites. It is a nation where blacks are far more likely to taunt and insult whites than other way around. I mean how many whites say ‘go back to Africa’? But just listen to rap music that is filled with filth.

Moore has too much pride, a bad thing in Christianity. His moral pride and preening holy-shmoliness blinds him to the fact that he’s a greedy sumfabitch who’s only interested in increasing members for his church than doing what is good for all Americans.
And more immigration and more diversity is NOT what this country needs.

Diversity is imperialism, imperialism is diversity. Roman Empire was diverse… because it was an EMPIRE!

If the West deserves to be invaded to make it diverse, then the corollary is ALL the world deserves to be invaded to make them more diverse.

* That Russell’s article would appear in the NYT is simply bizarre. Would they publish an evangelical Op-Ed about how “the majority of people who ever lived” were bound to not enter Heaven because they refused to accept Jesus as their Savior?

I doubt it. And I also doubt that many evangelicals even read, or respect, anything in the New York Times.

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