Facebook’s controversial Trending section has fallen out of fashion and will be removed next week, along with products and third-party partner integrations that rely on the Trends API.
Introduced in 2014, the section, available on desktop and mobile devices, was intended “to help people discover content that is both popular in the world and meaningful to them.”
In 2016, reports surfaced that the Trending section suppressed conservative news stories. In answer, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company had found no evidence of this, but insisted steps would be taken to remedy the situation if evidence emerged.
Nonetheless, the dustup prompted inquiries from partisan legislators aghast at the thought of political bias.
Facebook, ever eager avoid the liability that comes with being a publisher, said there was no bias…but nonetheless allowed that it “could not fully exclude the possibility of isolated improper actions or unintentional bias in the implementation of our guidelines or policies.”