Mark Zuckerberg To Meet With Conservative Leaders Over Facebook's Trending Topics
Jeff Chiu / AP
Conservative commentator Glenn Beck said on Sunday he and several others have been invited to meet with Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook's headquarters to discuss the site's Trending Topics feature.
A report by Gizmodo last week said Facebook employees were told to suppress conservative news from the list of topics that appear beside users' timelines. Facebook has said they've found no evidence to support the report and later released its internal guidelines for Trending Topics.
The Blaze — the media network founded by Beck — was named in the Gizmodo report as a site Facebook employees were told to stay away from in their compilation of trending links.
"Mark wanted to meet with eight or 10 of us to explain what happened and assure us that it won't happen again," Beck wrote on Facebook.
Beck added he was trying to fit the meeting on Wednesday into his schedule.
"It would be interesting to look him in the eye as he explains and a win for all voices if we can come to a place of real trust with this powerful tool," Beck wrote.
Beck added that he hopes Facebook will embrace principles of free speech and association in its platform, while acknowledging that Zuckerberg also has the freedom to run his company as he wishes.
"It will make lasting difference if he actually wants a place where all ideas are treated equally, even those he, or 'they', may disagree with," Beck said. "That is bravery and real freedom."
Facebook has invited around 12 "conservative thought leaders," the company confirmed to Reuters.
LINK: Facebook Publishes Internal “Trending Topics” Guidelines After Bias Claims