Discussion

• @mosseri Adam Mosseri on x

  I'm not defending Breitbart, I'm asking if you really want a platform of our scale to make decisions to exclude news organizations based on their ideology? Put another way, do you care more about advancing your views than preserving freedom for diverse views to be on platforms?

• @mosseri Adam Mosseri on x

  @cwarzel Two things to consider: (1) do you really want platform as big as Facebook embracing a political ideology? And (2) not as important, and this is an honest question, why such a different reaction to Breitbart being Apple News partner?

• @cwarzel Charlie Warzel on x

  i wrote about zuckerberg's worldview https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @juliacarriew Julia Carrie Wong on x

  Very strong argument for breaking up Facebook from architect of News Feed, current head of Instagram https://twitter.com/...

• @oliverdarcy Oliver Darcy on x

  It's alarming that Facebook execs think the only issue is Breitbart's “ideology.” Another issue would be the quality of stories it publishes. Using a website known for peddling misinformation as a source for a news tab aimed at curating “high quality” info makes little sense. htt…

• @elivalley Eli Valley on x

  It's also the ideology. It should not be taboo to say “Neo-Nazi outreach outlets have no place in the public sphere,” and its astonishing that @mosseri is agnostic on this. https://twitter.com/...

• @kainazamaria Kainaz Amaria on x

  “What else should we really expect from a company that refuses to meaningfully distinguish those who share hyperpartisan vitriol from those joyfully sharing baby pictures? When scale is the prism through which you view the world, that world becomes flat.” https://www.nytimes.com/…

• @juddlegum Judd Legum on x

  Top Facebook executive doesn't understand that deciding Breitbart is a “trusted” news source IS embracing a political ideology https://twitter.com/...

• @slpng_giants @slpng_giants on x

  This is @facebook's former head of News Feed saying that Breitbart represents an “ideology.” If you consider that working with white supremacists, harassing Roy Moore's accusers and being the “platform for the alt-right” an ideology, you've lost the script. https://twitter.com/..…

• @natesilver538 Nate Silver on x

  This is what happens when a platform is run by people who are truth-agnostic. I don't think anyone should want Facebook to promote/exclude outlets based on ideology. Rather, the argument is FB decisions should be made based on whether the publications are truthful and accurate. h…

• @athertonkd Kelsey D. Nuclear Aftermatherton on x

  My man, if Facebook cannot get this right it should not exist https://twitter.com/...

• @billt Bill Thompson on x

  All of us journalists need to consider what's going on with Facebook's approach to news and authority - because they currently get to legitimise, and we need to express our views about what actually grants status to a news outlet. Now. https://twitter.com/...

• @ekp Ellen K. Pao on x

  It's a race to the bottom. If one platform allows it, Facebook feels like it should be able to allow it—even if that means having harassment, racism, misogyny, fake news, and more. https://twitter.com/...

• @profgalloway Scott Galloway on x

  Another highly miscalculated move — yesterday FB announced Facebook News, because they're trustworthy when it comes to news, and also they're still not a media company. via @cwarzel https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @drvox David Roberts on x

  I'll just be the eleventy-millionth person to say: it's not the ideology, it's the inaccuracy, the utter disregard for truth or fairness or other journalistic principles. https://twitter.com/...

• @pashulman Peter A. Shulman on x

  Breitbart's ideology, as racist & retrograde as it is, isn't the issue. It's that it uses the trappings of journalism to lie, warp, inflame, and demonize. The problem with Facebook is it doesn't care which news organizations observe the norms of journalistic truth gathering. http…

• @alexstamos Alex Stamos on x

  Two things can be true: 1) Facebook should not include Breitbart as a trusted news partner. 2) The complete silence on Apple making the same mistake says something interesting about what is considered a scandal in the tech media. Some examples from the fêted Apple News: https://t…

• @ericboehlert Eric Boehlert on x

  if you think Breitbart is a “news organization,” you're doing this all wrong https://twitter.com/...

• @karaswisher Kara Swisher on x

  I have always thought that whatever the issue, Facebook is the most compromised company I have ever covered, always willing to try to pretend all things were equal: Opinion | Why Will Breitbart Be Included in ‘Facebook News’? - The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/...

• Vox Peter Kafka on x

  Facebook has finally decided that the best way to deliver news is to act like a newspaper

• @juddlegum Judd Legum on x

  Facebook's new section of “trusted” news sources will include Breitbart, a website that featured a section on “black crime” and laundered white nationalist talking points https://www.bloomberg.com/...

• @pkafka Peter Kafka on x

  @Jessicalessin Except... Facebook including Breitbart is almost certainly a political decision on FB's part. And there are plenty of subscriber-based businesses that both-sides it.

• @emilybell Emily Bell on x

  Just to remind everyone , News Corp is boosting a new product from Facebook for journalism , hailing it as a new platform. Is this journalism's Free Basics moment? Where it hands over it's development to an unaccountable business ...or is it politically significant ahead of 2020

• @oliverdarcy Oliver Darcy on x

  Zuckerberg defends having far-right website Breitbart in its news tab: “I think you want to have content that represents different perspectives,” Zuckerberg says, adding that all outlets will still have to comply with standards Facebook has set.

• @alexeheath Alex Heath on x

  Great question from @sarafischer to MZ: Will FB's human editors for the news tab include stories that are critical of FB? She points out that Bloomberg News doesn't cover Mike Bloomberg, a policy MZ didn't know about...

• @kevinroose Kevin Roose on x

  This is a) correct, b) encouraging, c) very, shall we say, interesting given how Facebook has treated journalists who cover the company in the past. https://twitter.com/...

• @parkermolloy Parker Molloy on x

  Breitbart is included in this list of “trusted” publishers. It's a site that absolutely does not adhere to the guidelines, and yet https://www.bloomberg.com/... pic.twitter.com/SdE3H9zrCI

• @mollywood Molly Wood on x

  Ahaha ... oh no, he didn't. He did!? He did. I especially love how he stole Elizabeth Warren's line. “We have a plan to help fix that.” https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @brosandprose Cruella D'awson on x

  Won't this be a fun and harmless experiment!! https://twitter.com/...

• @willoremus Will Oremus on x

  Facebook News is a vegetable stand parked in a side corridor of Willy Wonka's factory. https://onezero.medium.com/...

• @marshablackburn Sen. Marsha Blackburn on x

  Be very wary...sounds like just another way for Facebook to takeover every aspect of our lives and the news we read. https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @lauramandaro Laura Mandaro on x

  A drop in the bucket for Facebook but roughly the total U.S. daily newspaper circulation, which has been falling, according to Pew: Mark Zuckerberg Predicts 30 Million People Will Want Facebook News via @michaelfnunez https://www.forbes.com/...

• @edmundlee Edmund Lee on x

  Facebook will pay publishers, including @nytimes What's more notable is this rare mea culpa from Zuckerberg: “We feel acute responsibility because there's obviously an awareness that the internet has disrupted the news industry business model,” https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @moonalice Roger McNamee on x

  FB's history is clearest on this subject: trusting the company to be a good partner has never been wise. Why the Facebook News tab shouldn't be trusted - TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/...

• @matthewstoller Matt Stoller on x

  Facebook is paying publishers for the same reason it structures political ads. Zuckerberg is buying political power and influence. https://techcrunch.com/...

• @niemanlab @niemanlab on x

  Facebook's human-curated news section: “For heavily debated topics, curators will aim to curate stories that represent multiple perspectives on the issue.” https://www.niemanlab.org/...

• @jeffjarvis Jeff Jarvis on x

  Thompson puts Zuckerberg on the spot and asks whether FB can pay local papers. He touts the separate product they've been developing: Today In, a local tab. He says he hopes to have financial relations there. Then he touts FB's $300m commitment to news.

• @zephyrteachout Zephyr Teachout on x

  Also: “local newsrooms fear being left behind” is kind of a grotesque understatement of the problem of no local news. Isn't it more “humans fear democracy being dismantled?” https://www.cnn.com/...

• @cnni @cnni on x

  Some news publishers will be paid for providing their content to Facebook, but others will not. And some local newsrooms, already struggling, are worried about being left behind. https://edition.cnn.com/...

• @brianstelter Brian Stelter on x

  BuzzFeed CEO @Peretti says “it's a good day for the internet” because Facebook is paying $$ for access to publishers' content. “For the first time, we're seeing the platforms step up and take responsibility for their role in the news ecosystem,” he says https://www.cnn.com/...

• @jeremymbarr Jeremy Barr on x

  @sarafischer asks how News curators will handle stories about the company Zuck: “The team is going to be independent. For better or worse, we're a prominent part of the news cycle. I don't think it would be reasonable to have a News tab that didn't cover what Facebook was doing”

• @eads David Eads on x

  The timing is curious to me. Facebook rolled out a big new product for publishers in late 2015 (FB live) and paid them to use it. Now we're heading into 2020 and a similar story seems to be playing out.

• @mattbinder Matt Binder on x

  Zuckerberg deciding to partner with News Corp for this event on the day of the launch of a major Facebook news product really says it all. they reminisced on time spent with Rupert Murdoch and Mark defended the inclusion of Breitbart as a “high quality journalism” partner

• @mathewi Mathew Ingram on x

  Thompson making this sound like the Holy Grail of news, because Facebook is paying a handful of news companies a sum of money that for Zuckerberg is the equivalent of me giving the guy outside the bus station a quarter for coffee https://twitter.com/...

• @jeffjarvis Jeff Jarvis on x

  Oy again. Breitbart will be include in the news tab. Won't be paid, says The Times, but articles Breitbart posts to FB will be eligible for inclusion. https://www.nytimes.com/...

• @jeffjarvis Jeff Jarvis on x

  Publishers can run their own ads on their news tab content and keep the revenue or they can use FB's ad network and still get “the vast majority of the revenue.”

• @mathewi Mathew Ingram on x

  I'm convinced one of the reasons News Corp. is doing this is so it can put pressure on Google to pay up for news https://twitter.com/...

• @jeffjarvis Jeff Jarvis on x

  Zuckerberg: “This is going to be the first time that we're forming long-term, stable relationships and partnerships with publishers.” Nailing the rug down so it can't be pulled is critical for publishers!

• @willoremus Will Oremus on x

  This is something Apple News and the Washington Post wrestle with as well, obviously. It's good that Zuck doesn't plan to prohibit Facebook coverage in FB News. But if you're curating news for FB for a living, hard to imagine you don't at least think twice.... https://twitter.com…

• @jessicalessin Jessica Lessin on x

  No better example of how a biz models shapes biz decisions than Facebook's unfortunate move to include Breitbart, which is far more advocacy than journalism, in its News Tab. The ad biz pushes companies to a “both-sides ism” that thankfully reader-supported businesses can ignore.

• @mollymckew Molly McKew on x

  Honest question. Do we think Facebook paying publishers to use their context on Facebook news is going to result in less transparent coverage of Facebook? I get this is a gesture toward lost ad revenue, but ... https://www.bloomberg.com/...

• @halsinger Hal Singer on x

  A positive development on the surface, but the massive power imbalance ensures that news organizations, bargaining *individually* with Facebook, will not capture anything close to their marginal revenue product or forgone advertising revenues. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

• @letsgomathias Christopher Mathias on x

  In 2016, Steve Bannon called Breitbart a “platform for the alt-right.” In 2017, @Bernstein published a blockbuster piece on how Breitbart was smuggling white nationalism into the mainstream. Now @facebook is set to list Breitbart as a “trusted” news source https://twitter.com/...

• @lindsay_schnell Lindsay Schnell on x

  is this also not gonna be fact checked by a legit third party? https://twitter.com/...

• @athenae Allison Hantschel on x

  “Facebook stole all the news we gave them in a desperate attempt to reach the young people who haven't used this platform in 10 years, and now we have no money to deliver the paper to people who have been customers for 6 decades.” — media company execs, 6 months from now. https:/…

• @pkafka Peter Kafka on x

  One between the lines note: Regular Facebook newsfeed is Trump Trump and more Trump. New Facebook News, not so much. https://twitter.com/...

• @pkafka Peter Kafka on x

  “We want to set a different standard here, that's not a mix of news that your friends and family want to share.” https://twitter.com/...

• @notdetails Joeltergeist on x

  siri, show me the most tone deaf thing https://twitter.com/...

• @gerryfsmith Gerry Smith on x

  Facebook is finally giving some publishers what they want: $$. But how many people will really visit a separate tab to get news? Story w/ @sarahfrier https://www.bloomberg.com/...

• @mathewi Mathew Ingram on x

  Facebook is clearly trying to help the media by giving them lots of untruthful political ads to write about. Thanks Mark! https://twitter.com/...

• @karaswisher Kara Swisher on x

  Ah yet another payoff attempt! https://www.nytimes.com/... via @NYTimes

• @bgrueskin Bill Grueskin on x

  Facebook often says it shouldn't be treated like a publisher. With this deal, Facebook will be paying for news, curating news, making editorial judgments around news and ... publishing news. https://www.wsj.com/...

• @asmith83 Adam Smith on x

  Congrats to Daily Wire and Diamond and Silk! https://twitter.com/...

• @zachleat Zach Leatherman on x

  For the third time in my thirteen year Twitter existance, I will post a link to TechCrunch (this article is *good*): “Meet users where they are, but pull them back to where you live.” https://techcrunch.com/... on the inevitable future calamity that will be Facebook News.

• @ceciliakang Cecilia Kang on x

  “We feel acute responsibility because there's obviously an awareness that the internet has disrupted the news industry business model,” Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive, said in an interview. https://www.nytimes.com/... via @mikeisaac @marctracey

• @cjamcmahon Ciarn Mc Mahon on x

  This comes less than a fortnight after an Oireachtas committee heard several social media corps deny that they were publishers with editorial control https://twitter.com/...

• @markscott82 Mark Scott on x

  Still not a media organization. Nope, not one bit. Who would think of such a thing?! https://newsroom.fb.com/...

• @aaronnagler Aaron Nagler on x

  Why would ANY kind of publisher trust FB ever again? Smh https://twitter.com/...

• @mattnavarra Matt Navarra on x

  I concur with @CaseyNewton's assessment here about the potential of Facebook's News tab https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @caseynewton Casey Newton on x

  Facebook News is here. But will an audience show up for it? https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @jason_kint Jason Kint on x

  🤗 “Facebook is expected to generate $19 billion in profits this year. Call me biased, but spending a small fraction of that to please publishers seems like a decent investment.” - @pkafka https://twitter.com/...