Mark Zuckerberg to meet influential conservative leaders

The move is seen as a damage control exercise by Zuckerberg, who has been criticised heavily in the last few days after news reports surfaced by Facebook is censoring certain kind of news. 

“This week, there was a report suggesting that Facebook contractors working on Trending Topics suppressed stories with conservative viewpoints. We take this report very seriously and are conducting a full investigation to ensure our teams upheld the integrity of this product,” he wrote.

Zuckerberg said the investigations found no evidence that this report is true.

“If we find anything against our principles, you have my commitment that we will take additional steps to address it,” he said in an attempt to assure his support base.

“In the coming weeks, I’ll also be inviting leading conservatives and people from across the political spectrum to talk with me about this and share their points of view. I want to have a direct conversation about what Facebook stands for and how we can be sure our platform stays as open as possible,” he said.

Zuckerberg said the reason he cares so much about this is that it gets to the core of everything Facebook is and everything he wants it to be.

“Every tool we build is designed to give more people a voice and bring our global community together. For as long as I’m leading this company this will always be our mission,” he asserted.

His post came days after a top American Senator sought clarification from Zuckerberg on reports that Facebook employees actively suppressed news stories on topics of interest to politically conservative users of the social media platform.