Facebook says it fired leaker for participating in conservative bias ‘stunt’

The Veritas report includes 60 pages of documents and a related video, which features on-the-street confrontations with named Facebook employees.

The documents, provided by a former Facebook contractor now employed by Veritas, include screenshots of Facebook employee discussions on moderation efforts, as well as an internal presentation discussing a racist troll campaign.

According to Project Veritas founder James OKeefe, who narrates the video, Facebooks practices for limiting harassment and hate speech are designed to hit right-wing users the hardest.

But the documents suggested a close focus on the behavior of specific actors rather than a policy against conservative users.

Some pages tried to game that system by uploading pre-recorded videos through the live API, a violation of Facebooks policies.

OKeefe has a history of misleading editing, including videos of ACORN and NPR employees that watchdog groups later found to be inaccurate.

The new report plays into longstanding conservative fears over bias on tech platforms, which have often been encouraged by President Trump. Those fears came to a head last year with a bizarre House Judiciary hearing on social media bias, which focused on Facebooks alleged efforts to limit the network reach of the television personalities Diamond & Silk.

Original article
Author: The Verge

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