Zuckerberg says 'no evidence' found supporting Trendinggate charges

OREANDA-NEWS. May 16, 2016. Mark Zuckerberg says there is "no evidence" that Facebook's Trending Topics feature suppressed stories from conservative news outlets but vows to take action if a Facebook investigation found otherwise.

"We take this report very seriously and are conducting a full investigation to ensure our teams upheld the integrity of this product," Facebook's CEO wrote in a Facebook post Thursday afternoon. "We have found no evidence that this report is true. If we find anything against our principles, you have my commitment that we will take additional steps to address it."

The process Facebook uses to determine which stories are trending on its social network gained national attention earlier this week after the tech blog Gizmodo reported Facebook "news curators" had been told to suppress stories from conservative news outlets from its more than 1.65 billion monthly users.

Zuckerberg went on to say that in coming weeks, he would "be inviting leading conservatives and people from across the political spectrum to talk with me about this and share their points of view. I want to have a direct conversation about what Facebook stands for and how we can be sure our platform stays as open as possible."