Think Facebook isn't political? Think again

There’s a conceit that says everything at Facebook is run by data, not people. And we prefer it that way.

For the site’s billion users, believing there’s no human puppet master behind the scenes makes its growing control over life more palatable. It’s just a clever machine, reflecting our desires better and better with every interaction, right? For news producers, we have to believe that the platform treats everyone equally: that it’s a publisher not an editor.

In retrospect, this was always naive.

A conservative whistleblower at Facebook yesterday claimed...