No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram

by Sarah Frier

Earlier that year, as Instagram was building Stories, the online technology news site Gizmodo had written about a team of Facebook contractors who curated news into a “trending topics” module on the right side of the news feed. It was the only human-led editorial component of the social network. The blog cited anonymous Facebook contractors who said they routinely served up content from publishers like the New York Times and the Washington Post, but eschewed right-wing Fox News and Breitbart. Gizmodo also reported that employees were openly asking Facebook management whether they had a responsibility to prevent a Trump presidency. The reporter implied it was scary that Facebook’s employees realized their company was powerful enough to do this, if it wanted to. Facebook, in its response to the firestorm from the leaks, invited 16 of the most TV-friendly conservative political commentators, including Tucker Carlson, Dana Perino, and Glenn Beck, to its headquarters to learn about how the news feed was programmed. They reassured their guests that Facebook had no editorial bent. Later, they cut humans out of the process for picking trending topics, so that what trended on Facebook was determined by algorithm only.