This week news broke that the trending news feature on Facebook might be manipulated. Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee John Thune of South Dakota is right on this, demanding a hearing about this claim. The claim implies that Facebook trends liberal stories and suppresses those stories in which conservatives may have more interest. Senator Thune believes that if this charge it true, “Any attempt by a neutral and inclusive social media platform to censor or manipulate political discussion is an abuse of trust and inconsistent with the values of an open Internet.”

Personally, I would prefer that Senator Thune and his colleagues not worry about this situation.  Why not spend time trying to pass a budget so that there isn’t a crisis in the fall? Federal employees and contractors find the pattern of threatening or actually closing the government a bit tiring. If that’s not of interest, how about consider Obama’s Supreme Court nomination?

Facebook for me is entertainment. I connect with my friends, look at photos, read articles here and there. I see the “trending” topics but don’t consider that my only news source. Most of time the stuff I see on there is not newsworthy. “Kim Kardashian posts butt photo.”

Am I the minority? Most of us post articles etc. that reflect our views. How many of us have really swayed someone, especially politically, because of an article we posted? My guess is few. Additionally, most of us have friends of varying political and religious views so we probably see a variety of items on any given day on Facebook. Do we really need the government to get involved? Seems there is plenty of political conversation within my group of friends. No censoring there.

Let Facebook look into it and if you aren’t happy with what they say, close your account.

Like many sources, maybe Facebook does have a bias. But it is up to us, as news consumers, to seek out differing opinions or new ideas. It’s not up to Facebook or our government to make sure we are well read.