Facebook Classifying Users as Liberal, Moderate, or Conservative

Facebook users can find out how the social network has labelled them politically, with the site now categorising users as either liberal, moderate, or conservative.

The process for finding out how Facebook has categorised you is as follows:

1. Make sure to log into Facebook and follow this link: facebook.com/ads/preferences
2. On the ad preferences page, click “Lifestyle and Culture” tab under the “Interests” header.
3. Click on US Politics. If this does not appear immediately, press the “See more” button underneath until it does.
4. Your political categorisation will be listed.

Facebook categorises its users not just on whether they like the pages of either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, but also on the brands and causes that one follows, determining whether they have liberal or conservative biases.

The company has long collected extensive information on its users, however this is the first time it has been seen to be classifying the particular political positions of its users.

The role of social media is expected to be increasingly important in this November’s general election, which is perhaps worrying news for conservatives given reports of Facebook’s anti-conservative stance.

Facebook has previously been reported to have suppressed conservative outlets and artificially amplified movements such as Black Lives Matter in an attempt to skew public opinion in a certain direction.

You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at ben@yiannopoulos.net