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Facebook is facing criticism following the revelation that it secretly conducted an emotional manipulation study. The study took place during one week in January 2012 on nearly 700,000 users, without their knowledge.
The world’s largest social media site collaborated with Cornell University and the University of California at San Francisco which published details of the research recently. The researchers manipulated information posted on users’ home pages in order to find out if “exposure to emotions led people to change their own posting behaviours,” reports the BBC.
The results of the experiment showed limited effects. The study concluded that users shown negative posts only exhibited 0.1% fewer positive words in their posts. Those shown positive news composed updates with 0.07% fewer negative words.
Still, users are outraged that users were unknowingly part of Facebook’s experiment without having the option to opt-out. Some argue that Facebook’s experiment could have had real world consequences. Users suffering from depression may have been negatively affected by negative posts.
So was this Facebook study legal?
Absolutely. By agreeing to Facebook’s terms of service, users are relinquishing their data to the social network for experiments like this. Although Facebook isn’t transparent about its data experiments, it’s Data Use Policy does allow it.
Was the study unethical?
It depends who you ask. While Facebook had an internal ethics review, it didn’t ask an independent institution like the Institutional Review Board to look at the experiment.
Facebook data scientist Adam Kramer expressed regret about the experiment.
“I can understand why some people have concerns about it, and my coauthors and I are very sorry for the way the paper described the research and any anxiety it caused. In hindsight, the research benefits of the paper may not have justified all of this anxiety.”
Agencies/Canadajournal
