https://qz.com/1295177/facebooks-decision-to-kill-the-trending-feature-proves-that-algorithms-are-not-always-the-answer/

Facebook says it’s removing its controversial “Trending” section because no one was actually using it. Over the past few years, the feature, which displays news stories popular on the platform, has become a case study for why algorithms can’t always do the job of a human, and why they can’t solve Facebook’s problems.

The feature caused Facebook a massive headache in 2016, after Gizmodo reported that the humans hired to moderate content featured in the section were suppressing conservative sources. Facebook fired the team, and since then, algorithms have been largely responsible for governing what goes into the Trending sidebar, which is prominently displayed at the top of the desktop site. But only two days after the company stopped using humans to curate the list, a fake news item made its way into the section. The Washington Post reported that this was not a one-time fluke, with multiple similar examples several months later.