White House ‘Pleased’ With Facebook Statement Denying They Suppressed Conservative News

It’s day two of the emerging Facebook Trendghazi™ scandal, and in a somewhat unusual move, the White House appears to have weighed in on the social media giant’s denial of allegations it suppressed news from conservative sources in its trending news section. At Tuesday’s White House daily briefing, Press Secretary Josh Earnest was asked a tangential question regarding the role of social media in news consumption pegged to the allegations, but volunteered a comment on the company’s denial that was somewhere on the spectrum between agnosticism and endorsement of their claim that “rigorous guidelines” prevent such suppression:

Communicating more effectively with the American people is a responsibility that we all have. Obviously we were pleased to see the statement from Facebook, making pretty clear that this was not something that they engaged in. Obviously, you can ask then directly for a better explanation of what people might be seeing.

Given the suspicion with which conservatives view pretty much all forms of news distribution, this vote of confidence from the White House ought to be just the thing Facebook needs to put this whole thing to rest.

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