Facebook is scrambling to contain the fallout from allegations that it has suppressed right-leaning political content on its powerful platform — a charge that hits at the social network’s image of neutrality.

CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg promised Thursday to meet with top conservatives about the allegations, a sign of how damaging any perception of political bias could be to the company.

“To serve our diverse community, we are committed to building a platform for all ideas,” Zuckerberg said in post addressing the issue directly for the first time.
“In the coming weeks, I’ll also be inviting leading conservatives and people from across the political spectrum to talk with me about this and share their points of view.”

Facebook’s problems intensified when unnamed former workers for its “trending” topics section told tech news website Gizmodo this week that colleagues had routinely omitted topics and news sources popular with conservatives.