With only 19 days left until the 2022 midterm elections, the top five news stories that Facebook is pushing to its users include environmental protesters gluing themselves to a floor and alleged UFOs. Meanwhile, the issues that matter to voters are not chosen by Mark Zuckerberg’s algorithm to trend on the platform.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is allowing trivial news stories to trend as “top” stories while the United States is plagued with inflation, an illegal migration crisis, crime waves, and the deadly fentanyl drug making its way across the country’s southern border.
According to analytics firm NewsWhip, the top five trending news stories for a 12-hour window on Thursday morning include the following headlines:
1) Astros’ Justin Verlander turns in brilliant performance in ALCS Game 1
The Houston Chronicle reports in the top trending story in America:
Justin Verlander didn’t look like an ace in the early frames of Game 1 of the ALCS on Wednesday night.
The Houston Astros 39-year-old hurler needed 65 pitches to get through the first three frames against the New York Yankees at Minute Maid Park, as New York took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on a solo home run from outfielder Harrison Bader. After struggling early in starts in the 2022 ALDS and 2019 World Series, Verlander appeared to be following a familiar trend on Wednesday.
2) College football player dies suddenly just before his 19th birthday
The Blaze reports in Facebook’s second trending story:
Mississippi State University football player Samuel Westmoreland died at the age of just 18, mere days before he would have turned 19 on Friday, according to the Mississippi State Athletics website. He played as an offensive lineman on the school’s team.
The cause of his death is currently unclear.
3) Environmental Protesters Glue Themselves To Floor. They Complain They Can’t Poop. Conservatives Roar.
Daily Wire reports in Facebook’s third trending story:
Environmental protesters determined to force the German automotive industry to decarbonize glued themselves to the floor at the Porsche pavilion in the Autostadt museum in Wolfsburg, Germany.
Then they complained there was no place to poop.
4) ‘Never Seen Anything Like This’: UFOs Reported By Pilots Over Pacific Ocean in August, September
Daily Wire reports in Facebook’s fourth trending story:
Various veteran pilots flying over the Pacific Ocean in August and September have claimed that they saw UFOs flying in circles above them in the night sky.
Former FBI agent Ben Hansen, the host of the Discovery+ show “UFO Witness,” obtained recordings of reports to the Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) in which pilots described what they saw.
5) Scientists find first known Neanderthal family in Russian cave
Washington Post reports Facebook’s fifth trending story:
Scientists have uncovered for the first time the remains of a closely related Neanderthal clan, including a family — a father and his daughter — in a Russian cave, offering a rare window into ancient times.
The clan was discovered in one of the largest genetic studies of a Neanderthal population to date, published this week in the journal Nature. Scientists suspect they perished together about 54,000 years ago — perhaps tragically, from starvation or a big storm — in the mountains of southern Siberia. They were living on a rocky cliff top on the outer reaches of Neanderthals’ known range, which extended from the Atlantic regions of Europe to central Asia.
Facebook’s algorithm is allowing these headlines to trend as the top five stories, just 19 days ahead of the midterm elections, revealing the company’s intention to keep the issues that really matter out of the social media feeds of American voters.
Polls suggest that Americans are concerned with other topics, as a Politico/Morning Consult poll published this week found that 93 percent of registered voters are worried about soaring inflation and the poor economy.
Here are five Breitbart headlines that could be trending on Facebook, if the company’s algorithms didn’t actively suppress the news impacting our nation.
1) Philly Fed: Inflation Getting Worse Even While Demand Slumps Again
Breitbart News’ John Carney reports:
Factory activity in the Philadelphia area declined for the second consecutive month in October even while inflationary pressures were more widespread, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said Thursday.
The indexes for current general activity and new orders both remained negative for the month and the shipments index remains low but still in positive territory. Despite sagging demand, the measures of inflation worsened and demand for labor increased, suggesting a stagflationary environment.
2) Photos: NYC Tent City for Migrants Includes Free WiFi, Video Games, Popcorn Maker, Foosball Tables
Breitbart News’ John Binder reports:
New York City officials have set up a tent city solely for migrants arriving on buses from Texas sent by Gov. Greg Abbott (R) that includes televisions, video games, laundry service, a popcorn maker, and more amenities.
Since Abbott and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) started sending border crossers and illegal aliens to New York City, a sanctuary city, more than 19,400 have arrived on buses — 73 percent of which remain in the city’s overcrowded homeless shelter system.
3) Joe Biden: Releasing 15 Million More Barrels of Oil Reserves Right Before Election ‘Not Politically Motivated at All!’
Breitbart News’ Charlie Spiering reports:
President Joe Biden defended his decision Wednesday to release another 15 million in oil reserves to keep gas prices low, just weeks before the midterm elections.
Reporters at the White House questioned Biden about his decision to release more oil from the national reserves, asking him if his decision was political.
4) Ohio Democrat Tim Ryan Vowed to Free One Million Inmates from U.S. Prisons
Breitbart News’ John Binder reports:
Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), running against Republican J.D. Vance for Ohio’s open United States Senate seat, once pledged to free a million inmates from prisons across the nation.
In 2019, while vying for his party’s presidential nomination in the Democrat primary, Ryan told the left-wing American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) that he would free half of all inmates sitting in U.S. prisons and jails if he were president.
5) Abrams: ‘Abortion Is an Economic Issue’ – Having Children Is Why You Are Worried About Inflation
Breitbart News’ Pam Key reports:
Georgia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that abortion is an economic issue because “having children is why you’re worried about” gas and food prices.
Abrams said, “Abortion is an economic issue. It’s been reduced to this idea of a culture war. But for women in Georgia, this is very much a question of whether they’re going to end up in poverty in the next five years because women who are forced to carry unwanted pregnancies they are four times more likely to be impoverished in five years. This is an economic issue and being reduced to a culture conversation. For families that have faced the issue of inflation, they care about housing prices. They care about whether they can afford to go to a doctor. That’s why I’m fighting for Medicaid expansion in Georgia.”
Breitbart News will continue to report on Facebook’s algorithm in the lead up to the 2022 Midterm elections.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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