Facebook changes policies on Trending Topics after activist accused site of right-wing censorship - and blames any bias on rogue employees

Facebook has changed its rules on Trending Topics after the company was accused of blocking news reports supporting right-wing candidates and causes. 

The company earlier claimed there was no evidence of a conspiracy to suppress conservative topics on its social network. 

Facebook's general counsel Colin Stretch wrote a 12-page letter to Republican senator John Thune who had expressed concern over the censorship reports. 

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Facebook has changed the method it uses to determine 'Trending Topics' after the company was accused of bias over claims conservative views were under represented on the social media network

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg last week met with conservative commentators including Glen Beck to discuss how the social media network ranks its news stories while denying any overt left-wing bias 

Senator John Thune, pictured, right, wrote to Facebook after the allegations of anti-conservative bias surfaced

Senator Thune is chairman of the commerce committee which is responsible for the internet and consumer protection. 

Facebook's Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg met with Glenn Beck and a dozen other prominent conservative commentators after the allegations surfaced on Gizmodo, based on a single, anonymous source. 

The story, featuring a former Facebook worker claimed the company deliberately downplayed conservative news.

Then, right-wing activist Lauren Southern complained she was banned by Facebook for complaining on the network over their censorship of conservatives. 

Facebook later lifted Southern's suspension claiming it was a 'human error'.  

As part of the changes outlined Monday, Facebook will stop looking to news outlets like The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post and Drudge Report to automatically nominate topics for its trending feature. It also automatically nominates topics based on a spike in user posts about a subject.

Spokeswoman Jodie Seth said: 'In our meetings last week, we received feedback that any list - even a good one - inherently raises questions of which publications are included versus which are not. Based on this feedback, we felt that the best approach would be to clear up this issue by removing these lists entirely and focus on surfacing the conversation on Facebook.'

Trending topics are seen on the right side of the screen on computers, or after tapping on the search bar in a mobile app.

Conservative activist and Donald Trump supporter Lauren Southern (pictured left and right) was banned from Facebook after complaining about how the social media site censored another conservative

Southern was sent a notice that she was being temporarily blocked from posting on Facebook (above)

Southern detailed, and even videotaped, the ordeal on Friday which began after she mentioned the administrator of a right-wing group had been banned from Facebook (shown above)

As part of its review, Facebook found that members of the team working on trending topics could temporarily suppress topics if news outlets weren't reporting on them enough.

But said it found no evidence of systemic political bias, though it couldn't discount that a lone wolf might be able to game its system.

'It is impossible to fully exclude the possibility that, over the years of the feature's existence, a specific reviewer took isolated actions with an improper motive,' it said.

'Our investigation could not exclude the possibility of isolated improper actions or unintentional bias in the implementation of our guidelines or policies,' 

Thune said in a statement he found Facebook's response 'encouraging' though it revealed that its trending topics feature 'relied on human judgment, and not just an automated process, more than previously acknowledged'.

Brent Bozell, the president of the conservative Media Research Center and who attended last week's meeting, applauded the change.

'Facebook was relying on a preponderance of liberal and leftist 'news' organs. By not relying on any specific news outlets, Facebook returns to its neutral roots,' he said in a statement.