In a panel at the New York Advertising Week, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg responded to the accusations that the social network is trying to brainwash users by controlling the news.
According to Sandberg, Facebook is "definitely" not in control of the media, as it is not a media company. She added that Facebook does not have an editorial team that decides what would be shown on the news feeds of users, as that is determined by the user's own connections.
Sandberg claimed that the idea that Facebook is limiting the news that users are being exposed to is misguided, as the social network actually grants users the ability to hear from more people. This is compared to the times before social media existed, when people could only access a smaller network of media outlets and news sources.
Sandberg made these claims despite several news-related issues that have been recently connected to the company, with the most recent one being the removal of the Pulitzer Prize-awarded "Napalm Girl" picture on the social network.
Posts that contained the photo, which showed a naked girl trying to escape a napalm attack in Vietnam in 1972, were taken down on Facebook, with the social network at first justifying the removal through the platform's regulations against nudity and child pornography.
Facebook received massive criticism for the move, with the social network being accused of abusing its power. The company was later forced to reinstate the posts, claiming that it has recognized the history and the global importance behind the photo.
Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, who made one of the aforementioned posts, wrote an open letter of criticism against Facebook. Sandberg responded to Solberg with a letter of her own, containing an apology for the oversight and a promise to better oversee how Facebook regulates content.
Another recent news-related issue that Facebook encountered were the accusations in May that the social network practiced political bias by influencing what appears on the Trending Topics section. Several former employees claimed that Facebook prevented articles focused on conservative topics from hitting the section, with the company instructing them to instead push certain stories into the Trending Topics.
Facebook has since made amends, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg setting a meeting with representatives for the different political ideologies to ensure them that the social network will remain open and neutral on political issues. Facebook has also fired the team behind Trending Topics, with the social network to instead rely on computer algorithms to populate the section.
Will more such issues concerning Facebook pop up in the near future? That is almost a certainty. However, if Sandberg's statements are to be considered true, users should at least not worry about the social network trying to brainwash them by controlling what they see on their news feed.
