Facebook has the internet up in arms again when a hoax 9/11 story appeared on its "Trending" stories section. It has spawned dismays and critics from social media users as well.
According to The Washington Post, a post on the "Trending" section of Facebook for the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks directed users to an article that appeared in a tabloid called The Daily Star. The story published claimed that the destruction of the New York Twin Towers was caused by bombs rather than the hijacked planes.
There was also an allegation that the World Trade Center was brought down by controlled demolition instead of the damage caused by the crashed airplanes. When reached for a comment about the issue, a Facebook representative stated, "We're aware a hoax article showed up there and as a temporary step to resolving this we've removed the topic."
Meanwhile in a post by Engadget, the hoax story link that appeared on Facebook Trending was seen as another failure. Due to the social media giant's decision to solely rely on its automated news algorithm.
Instead of using humans to write descriptions of stories that it promotes as trending topics, they decided to just let computers do it to avoid possible bias from its own editors. It is not the first time it happened as the 9/11 fiasco came just a week after Facebook promoted a similar hoax article about Megyn Kelly, an anchor for Fox News.
In the same post by Engadget, Facebook still employs human editors but their work is limited to highlighting which topics are currently trending online. With the 15th anniversary of the attacks coming, it was no surprise that 9/11 would be on the rise on the trending list.
However, given the sensitivity of the subject, pundits are wondering why the article was not vetted properly. Still, Facebook remains confident and stands by their decision to use AI instead of old fashioned human logic.