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Comment by ekips | Hacker News Reader

Why should users be made aware of it?

Because Facebook presents itself to users as a way to share and express what matters to them. Not as a way to share and express what matters to them so long as it agrees with Facebook's censors.

Do they really present themselves as anything in particular, or does we as users just make up these ideas of what they are showing us?

I can't really seem to recall facebook making any promise about being a neutral party.

Are they being prevented from sharing or expressing what matters to them in any way? Because Facebook isn't amplifying their preferred sources via the trending section?

Yes, according to the allegations implied in the letter. If Facebook penalizes topics which don't agree with Facebook's bias - that certainly would be preventing some of their users from expressing what matters to them. I don't follow your second question about amplifying.

Basically, people are still free to post whatever they want and their friends and families will still see it -- they were just restricting their "Trending" section to non-conservative news sources. So their freedom of expression was upheld but FB just wouldn't amplify certain sources.

Well, to a certain extent, they do exactly agree to that. You cannot post objectionable content on Facebook.

Additionally, the Facebook feed is not a linear display of content. The feed has been manipulated for a while now. So users have known for a long time that Facebook changes what they view according to Facebook's whims.

Because intentionally misleading people is a problem.

I don't know enough about this particular issue to judge Facebook but I think it is pretty well established that preventing fraudulent communications is a legitimate role for government.

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