Fox News host Megyn Kelly ended up on Facebook’s Trending topics Sunday, after the social media giant linked to a post on an obscure website claiming that Kelly had been fired.
The story, headlined “Fox News Exposes Traitor Megyn Kelly, Kicks Her Out For Backing Hillary,” was seen and shared tens of thousands of times before being removed from the Trending section Sunday evening.
The blunder comes just days after Facebook fired 15 editors from its Trending team. In a post explaining the changes, Facebook promised “there are still people involved in this process to ensure that the topics that appear in Trending remain high-quality.”
Facebook has been accused of suppressing stories from conservative sources, with former workers saying certain stories were “blacklisted” from the Trending Topics module, while others were inserted.
Facebook has made a statement on the Kelly story to The Washington Post:
Facebook exec calls @megynkelly promo a "mistake for which we apologize." pic.twitter.com/4KqBfNL87C
— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) August 29, 2016