12 new projects will finally show us how Facebook is changing democracy

a post by Jacob Kastrenakes for The Verge [via ResearchBuzz: Firehose



Ever since the 2016 US election, some of the most urgent questions in tech have been about the impact of social media — Facebook, in particular.

How much does fake news influence people’s opinions?
Do filter bubbles lead to more polarized views?
Why are people so inclined to share outrageous stories?

Researchers have been looking at those questions for years, but actual experimental data has been hard to come by. But this summer, select researchers will get access to some of the most insightful social media data we have, direct from Facebook.

In an unprecedented move, Facebook has agreed to provide anonymized data about how stories are shared across its platform. The first 12 research groups to get access to Facebook’s sensitive user behavior data were announced last week. Collectively, they’ll be studying critical questions facing politics and technology: how disinformation campaigns play out on social media, the ways partisan communities become organized, and whether Facebook as a whole can swing an election.

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