Facebook’s Faked News

Well, so much for Facebook’s claims to be an honest information broker: Turns out its list of “trending” topics comes with a hefty political bias.

The site Gizmodo on Monday reported what it had heard from some of the “news curators” who actually create the “trending” feed — which only starts with topics flagged by a computer algorithm as to what users are actually posting about.

The exposé reveals one level of bias imposed by management — and another from the peons hired to do the work.

Several curators cited routine nixing of right-of-center topics — news about Mitt Romney, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and even Lois Lerner, the face of the IRS scandal.

Ironic: IRS employees used their power to suppress righty speech, and Facebook then suppressed the fact its users cared about it . . .

Why did the curators censor? Well, the folks hired to do the work came largely from elite private colleges — you know, the ones now plagued by demands for “safe spaces” where “threatening” ideas are forbidden.

Plus, Facebook reportedly ordered up some censorship — by telling the curators to link trending topics only to stories from “respectable” sources like The New York Times and the BBC. ( Something’s on Drudge? Blacklist it!)

They even got told to “inject” news that wasn’t actually trending on Facebook at all. It turns out “Black Lives Matter” didn’t score on its own with users — it needed Facebook management’s thumb on the scale.

Naturally, Facebook issued a flat-out denial Monday, citing its “rigorous guidelines.” You can believe that when you see Post stories on the “trending” list.

Meantime, don’t think it’s safe to trust Silicon Valley with the future of the news industry.