Facebook had a tool to weed out fake news circulating on the social network this year but declined to deploy it for fear of offending conservatives, a report said on Monday.

The report by the online news site Gizmodo comes with Facebook under fire for allowing hoaxes and misinformation to go viral and, according to some critics, boost the efforts of Republican Donald Trump in his successful presidential run.

Facebook denied the report.

Gizmodo, citing unnamed sources said to be knowledgeable about Facebook&#39;s decision-making, said the tool was shelved after a controversy over reports saying the social network suppressed some conservative voices in its &quot;trending topics&quot; earlier this year.

&quot;They absolutely have the tools to shut down fake news,&quot; Gizmodo quoted one source as saying. &quot;There was a lot of fear about upsetting conservatives after (the uproar over) trending topics.&quot;

A Facebook statement said that the claims made in the article were &quot;not true&quot;.

&quot;We did not build and withhold any News Feed changes based on their potential impact on any one political party,&quot; the statement from Facebook said.

&quot;We always work to make News Feed more meaningful and informative, and that includes examining the quality and accuracy of items shared, such as clickbait, spam and hoaxes.&quot;

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg has rejected the idea that bogus stories shared at the social network paved a path of victory for Trump.

&quot;The idea that fake news on Facebook, which is a very small amount of the content, influenced the election in any way I think is a pretty crazy idea,&quot; Zuckerberg said during an on-stage chat at Technonomy, a technology trends conference in California.

In a weekend posting, Zuckerberg said dealing with hoaxes and fake news is complex.

&quot;This is an area where I believe we must proceed very carefully,&quot; he said.

&quot;Identifying the &#39;truth&#39; is complicated. While some hoaxes can be completely debunked, a greater amount of content, including from mainstream sources, often gets the basic idea right but some details wrong or omitted.&quot;

Bogus election results

The notion of hoaxes and fake news remained a topic of debate on Monday, when internet users searching on Google were delivered a bogus report saying Trump won the popular vote in addition to the Electoral College.

The numbers on a blog called 70News, contradicting official results tallied so far by states, said Trump received 62.9 million votes to 62.2 million for Hillary Clinton.

The blog urged those petitioning for the Electoral College to switch their votes to reflect popular will to scrap their effort.

&quot;Hey Change.org, scrap your loony petition now,&quot; the posting said.&nbsp;

The bogus site was listed at the top of many search queries for &quot;final election result&quot;.

Preliminary tallies showed Clinton won roughly 700,000 more votes than Trump despite losing the states needed for an Electoral College victory.

Google seeks &quot;to provide the most relevant and useful results for our users&quot;, a company statement to AFP said.

&quot;In this case, we clearly didn&#39;t get it right, but we are continually working to improve our algorithms.&quot;

(AFP)

Facebook is under fire for allowing hoaxes and misinformation to go viral and,boost the efforts of Trump in his successful presidential run

Facebook had a tool to weed out fake news circulating on the social network this year but declined to deploy it for fear of offending conservatives, a report said on Monday. The report by the online news site Gizmodo comes with Facebook under fire for allowing hoaxes and misinformation to go viral and, according to some critics, boost the efforts of Republican Donald Trump in his successful presidential run. Facebook denied the report. Gizmodo, citing unnamed sources said to be knowledgeable about Facebook's decision-making, said the tool was shelved after a controversy over reports saying the social network suppressed some conservative voices in its "trending topics" earlier this year. "They absolutely have the tools to shut down fake news," Gizmodo quoted one source as saying. "There was a lot of fear about upsetting conservatives after (the uproar over) trending topics." A Facebook statement said that the claims made in the article were "not true". "We did not build and withhold any News Feed changes based on their potential impact on any one political party," the statement from Facebook said. "We always work to make News Feed more meaningful and informative, and that includes examining the quality and accuracy of items shared, such as clickbait, spam and hoaxes." Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg has rejected the idea that bogus stories shared at the social network paved a path of victory for Trump. "The idea that fake news on Facebook, which is a very small amount of the content, influenced the election in any way I think is a pretty crazy idea," Zuckerberg said during an on-stage chat at Technonomy, a technology trends conference in California. In a weekend posting, Zuckerberg said dealing with hoaxes and fake news is complex. "This is an area where I believe we must proceed very carefully," he said. "Identifying the 'truth' is complicated. While some hoaxes can be completely debunked, a greater amount of content, including from mainstream sources, often gets the basic idea right but some details wrong or omitted." Bogus election results The notion of hoaxes and fake news remained a topic of debate on Monday, when internet users searching on Google were delivered a bogus report saying Trump won the popular vote in addition to the Electoral College. The numbers on a blog called 70News, contradicting official results tallied so far by states, said Trump received 62.9 million votes to 62.2 million for Hillary Clinton. The blog urged those petitioning for the Electoral College to switch their votes to reflect popular will to scrap their effort. "Hey Change.org, scrap your loony petition now," the posting said. The bogus site was listed at the top of many search queries for "final election result". Preliminary tallies showed Clinton won roughly 700,000 more votes than Trump despite losing the states needed for an Electoral College victory. Google seeks "to provide the most relevant and useful results for our users", a company statement to AFP said. "In this case, we clearly didn't get it right, but we are continually working to improve our algorithms." (AFP)

Facebook had tool to weed out fake news, declined to deploy over fear of offending conservatives

Facebook&rsquo;s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg again rejected Saturday the idea that the social network had affected the US presidential election.

It is &quot;extremely unlikely&quot; news hoaxes changed the outcome, Zuckerberg said.

Following the surprise election of Donald Trump on November 8, critics have alleged the site helped spread lies via fake news stories and hoaxes.

Zuckerberg has insisted Facebook is a technology company, not a media firm, and called the idea of Facebook affecting the US elections &quot;crazy&quot;.&nbsp;

&quot;Of all the content on Facebook, more than 99 per cent of what people see is authentic,&quot; he said, adding that the network&#39;s goal is to &quot;give every person a voice&quot;.

Just days before the US elections, an article was shared on Facebook saying a federal agent who had been investigating Hillary Clinton was found dead.

&ldquo;FBI agent suspected in Hillary email leaks found dead in apparent murder-suicide,&rdquo; read the headline.

Facebook has begun working -- they started before the latest controversy -- on enabling people to flag hoaxes and fake news.

(WION with inputs from Reuters)

Critics have alleged the site helped spread lies via fake news stories and hoaxes

Facebook’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg again rejected Saturday the idea that the social network had affected the US presidential election. It is "extremely unlikely" news hoaxes changed the outcome, Zuckerberg said. Following the surprise election of Donald Trump on November 8, critics have alleged the site helped spread lies via fake news stories and hoaxes. Zuckerberg has insisted Facebook is a technology company, not a media firm, and called the idea of Facebook affecting the US elections "crazy". "Of all the content on Facebook, more than 99 per cent of what people see is authentic," he said, adding that the network's goal is to "give every person a voice". Just days before the US elections, an article was shared on Facebook saying a federal agent who had been investigating Hillary Clinton was found dead. “FBI agent suspected in Hillary email leaks found dead in apparent murder-suicide,” read the headline. Facebook has begun working -- they started before the latest controversy -- on enabling people to flag hoaxes and fake news. (WION with inputs from Reuters)

Zuckerberg again rejects claim Facebook affected US election

Facebook accidentally declared live users dead, acknowledging after fixing the problem on Friday that it had committed a &quot;terrible error&quot;.

&quot;For a brief period today, a message meant for memorialised profiles was mistakenly posted to other accounts,&quot; a Facebook spokesperson told AFP.

&quot;This was a terrible error that we have now fixed.&quot;

Media reports indicated that some two million errant memorials were posted on profile pages. The social network apologized and said it work as quickly as possible to correct the problem.

&quot;Damn. I should have used Facebook Live to show how I was Facebook Dead,&quot; Search Engine Land editor Danny Sullivan said in a message fired off at Twitter.

Facebook Live feature lets people broadcast video in real-time at the leading social network.&nbsp;

Even very-much-alive &nbsp;Facebook co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was memorialised in a message at his profile page expressing hope people who loved him would take comfort in posts people shared in tribute to his life.

The mistaken memorial notices contained links to forms that can be submitted to have people&#39;s accounts at the leading social network modified into online memorials after they die.

Part of the process is showing proof of death.

(AFP)

For a brief period on Friday, a message meant for memorialised profiles was mistakenly posted to other accounts, including Mark Zuckerberg's

Facebook accidentally declared live users dead, acknowledging after fixing the problem on Friday that it had committed a "terrible error". "For a brief period today, a message meant for memorialised profiles was mistakenly posted to other accounts," a Facebook spokesperson told AFP. "This was a terrible error that we have now fixed." Media reports indicated that some two million errant memorials were posted on profile pages. The social network apologized and said it work as quickly as possible to correct the problem. "Damn. I should have used Facebook Live to show how I was Facebook Dead," Search Engine Land editor Danny Sullivan said in a message fired off at Twitter. Facebook Live feature lets people broadcast video in real-time at the leading social network. Even very-much-alive Facebook co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was memorialised in a message at his profile page expressing hope people who loved him would take comfort in posts people shared in tribute to his life. The mistaken memorial notices contained links to forms that can be submitted to have people's accounts at the leading social network modified into online memorials after they die. Part of the process is showing proof of death. (AFP)

Facebook makes 'terrible error', accidentally declares live users dead

Social media giant Facebook on Friday said that its &#39;trending&#39; feature, where a few popular news topics are listed on the homepage, will be automated to rely on algorithms that will no longer require people to write descriptions for the most &lsquo;popular&rsquo; topics.&nbsp; 
 
This, according to social media giant, will lessen the risk of personal bias in manipulating what props up on the hot topics&rsquo; list.&nbsp; 
 
The move comes in the wake of allegations made by critics that Facebook&rsquo;s trending section was biased against conservative news outlets. The company has denied the allegations.&nbsp; 
 
&quot;We looked into these claims and found no evidence of systematic bias,&quot; Facebook reiterated in its blog post on Friday, adding that &quot;making these changes to the product allows our team to make fewer individual decisions about topics.&quot; 
 
Instead of the descriptions, the algorithm will allow users to just see the topic which is trending and the number of people talking about it.&nbsp; 
 
Letting a cursor hover over a topic will show &quot;an automatically selected original news story with an excerpt pulled directly from the top article itself.&quot; 
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Letting a cursor hover over a topic will show &quot;an automatically selected original news story with an excerpt pulled directly from the top article itself.&quot;" target="_blank">&nbsp;</a></div>
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However, humans will ensure that topics making the news are real-world news and not based on any vague internet trend. That is, they will just verify the quality but not hand-pick the topics to be featured.&nbsp; 
 
&quot;Our investigation has revealed no evidence of systematic political bias in the selection or prominence of stories included in the Trending Topics feature,&quot; Facebook general counsel Colin Stretch said in a letter responding to a query from Republican US Senator John Thune, who chairs the commerce committee. 
 
The letter stated that Facebook had updated its terminology and gave reviewers the training that emphasised content decisions were not based on politics or ideology.&nbsp; 
 
&quot;In fact, our analysis indicated that the rates of approval of conservative and liberal topics are virtually identical in Trending Topics.&quot; 
 
Facebook stopped stop relying on external websites and news outlets as its review team became subject to more controls.&nbsp; 
 
Technology news outlet Gizmodo had also reported anonymous allegations that Facebook was deliberately omitting articles with a conservative spin.&nbsp; 
 
(WION with inputs from AFP)

The feature will now rely heavily on algorithms that will lessen the risk of personal bias in what comes up in the trending feed

Social media giant Facebook on Friday said that its 'trending' feature, where a few popular news topics are listed on the homepage, will be automated to rely on algorithms that will no longer require people to write descriptions for the most ‘popular’ topics. This, according to social media giant, will lessen the risk of personal bias in manipulating what props up on the hot topics’ list. The move comes in the wake of allegations made by critics that Facebook’s trending section was biased against conservative news outlets. The company has denied the allegations. "We looked into these claims and found no evidence of systematic bias," Facebook reiterated in its blog post on Friday, adding that "making these changes to the product allows our team to make fewer individual decisions about topics." Instead of the descriptions, the algorithm will allow users to just see the topic which is trending and the number of people talking about it. Letting a cursor hover over a topic will show "an automatically selected original news story with an excerpt pulled directly from the top article itself." Letting a cursor hover over a topic will show "an automatically selected original news story with an excerpt pulled directly from the top article itself." However, humans will ensure that topics making the news are real-world news and not based on any vague internet trend. That is, they will just verify the quality but not hand-pick the topics to be featured. "Our investigation has revealed no evidence of systematic political bias in the selection or prominence of stories included in the Trending Topics feature," Facebook general counsel Colin Stretch said in a letter responding to a query from Republican US Senator John Thune, who chairs the commerce committee. The letter stated that Facebook had updated its terminology and gave reviewers the training that emphasised content decisions were not based on politics or ideology. "In fact, our analysis indicated that the rates of approval of conservative and liberal topics are virtually identical in Trending Topics." Facebook stopped stop relying on external websites and news outlets as its review team became subject to more controls. Technology news outlet Gizmodo had also reported anonymous allegations that Facebook was deliberately omitting articles with a conservative spin. (WION with inputs from AFP)

Facebook to make trending news feature more automated

Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon.com Inc, has become the world&#39;s third-richest person as of the market close for the first time, Forbes magazine said, passing Warren Buffett, the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. 
 
Bezos&#39; fortune was $65.3 billion as of 4:30 pm EDT on Thursday, compared with Buffett&#39;s $64.9 billion. 
 
Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates remained the world&#39;s richest person, at $77.7 billion, while Spain&#39;s Amancio Ortega, who founded the Zara clothing chain&#39;s owner Inditex SA, was second at $72.7 billion. Facebook Inc co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was fifth, at $54 billion. 
 
Bezos, 52, owns close to 18 per cent of Amazon. Its stock has risen by roughly 50 per cent since early February, as the world&#39;s largest online retailer continued to upend retailing as more people took to the Web rather than the mall to shop. 
 
Amazon&#39;s share price rose further in after-hours trading, after the Seattle-based company reported better-than-expected second-quarter results. 
 
Buffett, 85, owns close to 18 per cent of Berkshire, but his donation this month of $2.86 billion of Berkshire stock to the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation and four family charities led to his drop to fourth place. He has donated more than $24.3 billion to the Gates Foundation and family charities since 2006. 
 
Berkshire is based in Omaha, Nebraska, and has roughly 90 business units including Geico car insurance, the BNSF railroad and Dairy Queen ice cream. 
 
In June, Buffett called Bezos a &quot;classic example&quot; of how a business owner could thrive, by having focused at Amazon on how to &quot;delight&quot; customers, and keep them coming back, rather than simply process their orders. 
 
(Reuters)

Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates remained the world's richest person, at $77.7 billion

Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon.com Inc, has become the world's third-richest person as of the market close for the first time, Forbes magazine said, passing Warren Buffett, the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Bezos' fortune was $65.3 billion as of 4:30 pm EDT on Thursday, compared with Buffett's $64.9 billion. Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates remained the world's richest person, at $77.7 billion, while Spain's Amancio Ortega, who founded the Zara clothing chain's owner Inditex SA, was second at $72.7 billion. Facebook Inc co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was fifth, at $54 billion. Bezos, 52, owns close to 18 per cent of Amazon. Its stock has risen by roughly 50 per cent since early February, as the world's largest online retailer continued to upend retailing as more people took to the Web rather than the mall to shop. Amazon's share price rose further in after-hours trading, after the Seattle-based company reported better-than-expected second-quarter results. Buffett, 85, owns close to 18 per cent of Berkshire, but his donation this month of $2.86 billion of Berkshire stock to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and four family charities led to his drop to fourth place. He has donated more than $24.3 billion to the Gates Foundation and family charities since 2006. Berkshire is based in Omaha, Nebraska, and has roughly 90 business units including Geico car insurance, the BNSF railroad and Dairy Queen ice cream. In June, Buffett called Bezos a "classic example" of how a business owner could thrive, by having focused at Amazon on how to "delight" customers, and keep them coming back, rather than simply process their orders. (Reuters)

Bezos passes Buffett, becomes third-richest person: Forbes

Facebook Inc&#39;s board has proposed removing Mark Zuckerberg&#39;s majority voting control in the event of the social media giant&#39;s chief executive and founder deciding to exit management at some point in future. 
 
In a proxy filing on Thursday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Facebook&#39;s board said it will ask shareholders to vote on a proposal that would convert Zuckerberg&#39;s Class B shares into Class A shares if he is no longer in a leadership position. 
 
As of June 2, Zuckerberg owned about 4 million Class A shares and about 419 million Class B shares, collectively representing about 53.8 percent of total outstanding voting power and 14.8 percent of total outstanding economic interests. 
 
The proposed move - to be voted on at Facebook&#39;s annual general meeting on June 20 - is designed to make sure a future Facebook chief&#39;s management powers aren&#39;t limited, said&nbsp;the board . 
 
&quot;These new terms thus ensure that we will not remain a founder-controlled company after we cease to be a founder-led company,&quot; the board said in the filing. 
 
Under current provisions, Zuckerberg is allowed to hold Class B shares and exercise majority voting control even if leaves the company. Zuckerberg would also be allowed to pass his Class B shares, and possibly his majority voting control, to descendants after his death.

As of June 2, Mark Zuckerberg owned about 4 million Class A shares and about 419 million Class B shares representing about 53.8 per cent of total outstanding voting power and 14.8 per cent of total outstanding economic interests

Facebook Inc's board has proposed removing Mark Zuckerberg's majority voting control in the event of the social media giant's chief executive and founder deciding to exit management at some point in future. In a proxy filing on Thursday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Facebook's board said it will ask shareholders to vote on a proposal that would convert Zuckerberg's Class B shares into Class A shares if he is no longer in a leadership position. As of June 2, Zuckerberg owned about 4 million Class A shares and about 419 million Class B shares, collectively representing about 53.8 percent of total outstanding voting power and 14.8 percent of total outstanding economic interests. The proposed move - to be voted on at Facebook's annual general meeting on June 20 - is designed to make sure a future Facebook chief's management powers aren't limited, said the board . "These new terms thus ensure that we will not remain a founder-controlled company after we cease to be a founder-led company," the board said in the filing. Under current provisions, Zuckerberg is allowed to hold Class B shares and exercise majority voting control even if leaves the company. Zuckerberg would also be allowed to pass his Class B shares, and possibly his majority voting control, to descendants after his death.

Facebook board seeks curb in Zuckerberg control in event of founder's departure

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