The Dozen Journalists Behind The Most Valuable Real Estate On The Internet

Mark Zuckerberg wants Facebook Inc FB to take over the digital news business. The first step in that process may be the company’s experimental “trending news” project.

The trending news section has been around since early 2014. The section appears in the top right hand corner of the Facebook page as a list of news items that Facebook users are talking about.

For now, Facebook employs a dozen or so journalist contractors to run the section. Each day, the Facebook “news curators” are presented with a list of trending terms ranked by Facebook’s algorithm. The news curators then determine the news items related to the terms and select the “most substantive post,” usually from a news site, to summarize the story.

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Some former contractors told Gizmodo they were treated poorly during their time at Facebook. Many also feel their main purpose was simply to improve Facebook’s algorithm so that human journalists will eventually no longer be required.

“We felt like we were part of an experiment that, as the algorithm got better, there was a sense that at some point the humans would be replaced,” one former contractor says.

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“It was degrading as a human being,” another said. “We weren’t treated as individuals. We were treated in this robot way.”

Former contractors say they worked long hours in a conference room in the basement of Facebook’s New York headquarters.

“As with all contractors, the trending review team contractors are fairly compensated and receive appropriate benefits,” a Facebook spokesperson said in response.

Disclosure: the author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.