Facebook made some big changes today to remove humans almost entirely from its controversial Trending Topics feature, removing the potential for editorializing the content shared on the social network.
As part of the change, Facebook eliminated the jobs of the 15 to 18 contractors hired to write short descriptions of each Trending Topics item, reports Quartz.
Those contractors reportedly only found out that their services at Facebook were no longer required at 4 p.m. ET on Friday — the same time, more or less, that Facebookreleased a blog announcing the changes. Those contractors are said to have been given about six weeks’ worth of severance pay and were asked to leave the building by 5 p.m.- READ MORE