Facebook altered user's News Feeds in order to compile data for a new study conducted in 2012.; Credit: KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images
Just in case you didn’t read the fine print: Facebook can use your data on its site for research. A study published this month in an academic journal relied on an experiment conducted on the social media site, prompting criticism about ethics and transparency.
For one week in 2012, Facebook manipulated hundreds of thousands of users’ news feeds to hone in on happy or sad updates from their friends. The results show that users who see more happy updates are more likely to post their own -- the same goes for sad posts.
Users are upset about having their emotions toyed with, saying that Facebook didn’t get informed consent from the subjects of the research. For most academic studies, there are review boards established to ensure that researchers don’t harm their subject and receive consent. In this case, researchers and their editors claim that consent is written into Facebook’s sweeping terms of service.
Was the way Facebook and it’s academic partners went about conducting this research ethical? Do changes to the News Feed constitute a violation, or are they part of Facebook’s routine? Do you have an expectation of privacy or consent when it comes to research conducted on a social media site?
Guest:
Zeynep Tufekci, assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, faculty associate at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University