Facebook Officials Shut Down Attempts to Make it Less Divisive

Americans' views on fundamental issues have been drifting apart for decades, but many believe that social media companies are widening the gap. After these concerns reached a fever pitch during the 2016 U.S. election, Facebook took a look at itself to see if it contributed to divisiveness. Turns out - it did. But as our reporter Jeffrey Horwitz explains, executives at Facebook dialed back efforts to fix the problem. Kateri Jochum hosts. Correction: An earlier version of this podcast mischaracterized Facebook executives as having not taken steps to address polarization. The podcast details the steps they took and we have removed that mischaracterization. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices