Media Matters for America claims to be working with Facebook “behind the scenes” to fight “fake news” and “propaganda” on the social media website, documents released by the Washington Free Beacon reveal.
Media Matters, a self-described “progressive research and information center” dedicated to “correcting conservative misinformation,” recently told donors at a Florida meeting that they had held discussions on news policy with Facebook leadership.
According to a briefing book obtained at the event, Media Matters offered the website its “expertise” and “input.”
“We’ve been engaging with Facebook leadership behind the scenes to share our expertise and offer input on developing meaningful solutions,” the briefing book said.
Media Matters also promises, with donors’ support, that “Internet and social media platforms, like Google and Facebook,” will “no longer uncritically and without consequence host and enrich fake news sites and propagandists.”
The Free Beacon states that Facebook has thus far declined to comment on the alleged relationship with Media Matters, adding that “a source familiar with the company’s thinking” indicated that the company speaks with groups from all political leanings.
While it remains unclear how much influence the left-wing organization has over the social media giant, recent actions from Facebook and Google appear to sync with the claim that “Google will cut off these pages’ accompanying sites’ access to revenue by pulling their access to Google’s ad platform” if Media Matters’ lobbying efforts are successful.
Just this week Facebook changed its trending topics algorithm to reflect what’s popular among Facebook-designated publishers instead of its users.
Google also stated this week that it had banned 200 unknown publishers, or designated fake news sites, from receiving advertising revenues.
The discovery of Media Matters’ alleged influence over Facebook will undoubtedly stir controversy given the organizations open bias and seemingly unmitigated defense of the Democratic Party.
Former Facebook workers speaking with Gizmodo last year also claimed that the website routinely suppressed viral conservative news.
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