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When pressed about whether users are notified of this demotion, Gyawali confirmed, “The person would not be notified,” indicating that content creators remain unaware of the reduced reach their posts experience.
The revelations didn’t stop with anti-Kamala Harris posts. O’Keefe Media Group also uncovered evidence of deliberate suppression of pro-Trump content by Meta’s special teams. Matthew Fowler, a Software Engineering Manager at Meta, admitted that the platform actively removes posts supporting the former president. “Usually the disinformation we saw was pro-Trump… We’ll investigate, and then it goes just up to another team to take it [the post] down,” Fowler said during an undercover interview.
Fowler further highlighted the reliance on mainstream media sources for fact-checking and decision-making. “The news is going to do their job, and then based on what the outlets say… you have to trust that,” he admitted, revealing a troubling trend of outsourcing critical content moderation decisions to media outlets often accused of liberal bias.
The undercover footage also captured candid discussions among Meta engineers about their bias against conservative voices. Plamen Dzhelepov, a Machine Learning Engineer at Meta, openly acknowledged the company’s ability to suppress content, stating, “Meta has the right to suppress anything.” He added that Meta’s actions are often politically charged, explaining, “they’re biased if they do that against the Republicans.”
Dzhelepov revealed how Meta’s system deliberately targets “crazy conspiracy right-wing people,” actively demoting content that aligns with conservative views. He confirmed that Meta’s platform is equipped with tools to reduce the visibility of specific opinions, primarily those from right-leaning individuals or groups.
In a separate conversation, Meta Data Scientist Michael Zoorob shed light on the platform’s fact-checking process. Zoorob admitted that conservative users are disproportionately affected by Meta’s policies. “The fundamental problem is that… the vast majority of what fact-checkers label as false is shared by conservatives,” Zoorob revealed, confirming the systemic bias in how Meta enforces its content moderation rules.
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Zoorob also touched on Meta’s handling of the Hunter Biden laptop story, a highly controversial topic during the 2020 election. He recalled how Meta reacted to the FBI’s warning, explaining, “We just downranked it,” which made the story less visible in users’ newsfeeds. This revelation highlights the extent to which Meta intervenes in politically sensitive matters, influencing public discourse.
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Throughout the undercover footage, it becomes clear that Meta plays an active role in shaping the narrative by selectively suppressing content based on political alignment. When misinformation is detected, Dzhelepov explained that Meta either censors it or adds a disclaimer, stating, “It’s either censored or it says a [community note] thing, where it says, ‘this is disinformation, it’s probably fake’ under the post.”
These statements align with long-held suspicions that social media giants like Meta wield immense power in controlling the flow of information, often favoring one side of the political spectrum over the other. The latest revelations from O’Keefe Media Group further validate concerns about the suppression of conservative viewpoints online and raise questions about the role big tech companies play in curating public opinion.
The undercover investigation by O’Keefe Media Group offers a rare glimpse into Meta’s internal practices, shedding light on the company’s biased content moderation. As these revelations continue to emerge, the public’s trust in big tech companies’ neutrality is further eroded. Meta’s actions, as exposed by these videos, raise serious concerns about the fairness of online discourse and the potential for politically motivated censorship on one of the world’s largest social media platforms.
