Today’s Top Stories
1. Former Facebook staffers told Gizmodo they routinely suppressed conservative news from the platform’s trending news section, “even though they were organically trending among the site’s users.” They also said they were instructed to sometimes add selected stories to trending news, “even if they weren’t popular enough to warrant inclusion at all.”
In other words, Facebook’s news section operates like a traditional newsroom, reflecting the biases of its workers and the institutional imperatives of the corporation. Imposing human editorial values onto the lists of topics an algorithm spits out is by no means a bad thing—but it is in stark contrast to the company’s claims that the trending module simply lists “topics that have recently become popular on Facebook.” . . .
In other instances, curators would inject a story—even if it wasn’t being widely discussed on Facebook—because it was deemed important for making the network look like a place where people talked about hard news. “People stopped caring about Syria,” one former curator said. “[And] if it wasn’t trending on Facebook, it would make Facebook look bad.” That same curator said the Black Lives Matter movement was also injected into Facebook’s trending news module. “Facebook got a lot of pressure about not having a trending topic for Black Lives Matter,” the individual said. “They realized it was a problem, and they boosted it in the ordering. They gave it preference over other topics. When we injected it, everyone started saying, ‘Yeah, now I’m seeing it as number one’.” This particular injection is especially noteworthy because the #BlackLivesMatter movement originated on Facebook, and the ensuing media coverage of the movement often noted its powerful social media presence.”
Facebook official Tom Stocky denies the allegations, Damon Beres explains the scandal, and Kelly McBride (worth reading) weighs in on the ethical angles. See also Jay Rosen. Tweet of the day goes to Alec MacGillis.
Wait, so maybe it's not such a great idea to have all our news consumption filtered through a single huge platform? https://t.co/RMAmkShmrD
— Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) May 9, 2016
2. The Times of Israel reports that Israel has given a green light to Palestinian policemen operating on the northern outskirts of Jerusalem in coordination with their Israeli counterparts.
The increased activity is taking place in West Bank areas, designated as Area B, that are formally under Palestinian civil control and Israeli security authority, the sources told The Times of Israel. PA police are cracking down in these areas on domestic crime, such as drug dealing and car theft, and have also carried out raids on terror groups and confiscations of illegal arms.
3. The Lincoln University Student Union became the first British student organization to sever itself from the National Union of Students, The Independent and The Lincolnite report.
This follows the recent election of Malia Bouattia as head of the NUS. Bouattia, a pro-BDS activist, previously expressed support for Palestinian terrorism and refused to condemn Islamic State. Other universities are considering divorcing the NUS.
“Put simply this debate has been about what students want from the organisation that represents them nationally and, for some time, we have felt that the focus of debate within the NUS has been far removed from the issues that our students tell us are important to them every day on campus.”
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
Israel and the Palestinians
• Two elderly women were hurt in a stabbing attack in southern Jerusalem this morning. Amnesty International staffer Jacob Burns thinks attacking elderly women is mitigated by which side of the Green Line it happens.
Two elderly Israeli women stabbed in illegal East Jerusalem settlement, moderately wounded, 2 suspects arrested https://t.co/AkKCzEY3i8
— Jacob Burns (@JacobTBurns) May 10, 2016
• Venezuelan envoy to UN apologizes to Israeli ambassador over ‘final solution’ remarks
• The US announced a five-year $50 million aid program for Gaza “to provide basic humanitarian assistance and create jobs.”
• Ahead of Israel’s Remembrance Day, USA Today takes note of the families of fallen American-Israeli soldiers.
Those being remembered include 350 North Americans or their children and spouses, seven more than last year, according to the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel.
• In a briefing for reporters, a former military advocate general said that applying Israeli law to the West Bank isn’t creeping annexation. Maj.-Gen. (res.) Danny Efroni follows up on public debate sparked by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, who is pushing the policy.
• Jerusalem Post: A Palestinian student in Hebron once detained by PA police protested his treatment by posting on Facebook he’d rather be arrested by Jews.
• Israel imposed a travel ban on BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti, tsk. To be clear, Barghouti is not an Israeli citizen.
Barghouti, whose family are Palestinian but who was born in the Gulf state of Qatar, married an Israeli citizen of Arab descent, entitling him to claim permanent residency.
• Hashtags, Periscopes and Vines take over Israel’s Foreign Ministry
Around the World
• Fallout from the New York Times Magazine profile of Ben Rhodes continues. Journalists Jeffrey Goldberg and Laura Rozen, who were described as “handpicked Beltway insiders” who “helped retail the administration’s narrative” spoke out.
See Goldberg’s column, as well as this tweet from Rozen. AP and CNN follow up on the White House’s damage control efforts.
Told @mlcalderone NYTMag editor acknowledged they failed to give me chance to object before publishing https://t.co/XaUaSNxWyf
— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) May 9, 2016
• In France, an uncertain future for Jews.
• Iran now denies an announcement by a brigadier general that a ballistic missile was successfully tested.
• The Times of Israel looks at how Israeli and Jewish aid organizations are pitching in to help Fort McMurray, the Canadian town where a wildfire has forced the evacuation of 90,000.
Commentary/Analysis
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Brendan Sims, Charlie Laderman: The longest hatred
– Dennis Ross: Why Mideast leaders are talking to Putin, not Obama
– Ron Kampeas: Did Ben Rhodes really dupe the public about the Iran deal?
– Richard Cohen: Of pride, falls — and Obama’s foreign policy
– Avinoam Bar-Yosef: The improbable happiness of Israelis (click via Google News)
– Washington Post (staff-ed): Iran’s ‘moderates’ and the Holocaust
Featured image: CC BY-NC Ben Raynal with additions by HonestReporting;
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