I would have thought that the algorithm would be entirely agnostic and based on incoming data only without humans to distort it, e.g. I share details with a dozen friends about aliens landing in Central Park, they then share it on and on. Facebooks algorithm will spot this and also others who did the same and then say &quot;Hey, looks like there is a trend growing about aliens in Central Park&quot; and from there would act upon it based on that data only, e.g. this topic was talked about 5 million times in the last minute and therefore bump it up the list to its corresponding position based on other &quot;trending&quot; topics.<p>Having humans involved will distort that process, thus meaning true trending does not exist. Well, on Facebook at least.