A Facebook researcher has apologised for conducting an experiment which manipulated how users posted to their accounts. The experiment influenced about 700,000 users.
Adam Kramer, a Facebook data scientist who was among the researchers on the project in question, wrote on his Facebook page that the team was “very sorry for the way the paper described the research and any anxiety it caused”.
According to the Irish Times, in January 2012, the number of positive and negative comments that users saw on their feeds of photos and articles was altered.
The research apparently found that those who saw less positive comments were more likely to post negative comments and vice versa with those who saw more positive comments.
The researchers claimed that what the users were shown in online messages affected the way they post which may affect offline behaviour also.
However, Facebook has come under fire for using accounts for research without prior knowledge from the users themselves.
“We carefully consider what research we do and have a strong internal review process,” Facebook replied. “There is no unnecessary collection of people’s data in connection with these research initiatives and all data is stored securely.”
