Users angry over Facebook mood manipulation study

Anger has sparked among Facebook users after they found out that they had been unknowingly and unwillingly subjected to a study by the company’s researchers.

It seems that, back in 2012, during one week 690,000 Facebook users had their News Feed deliberately manipulated. One part of the subjects received positive posts while the other only saw negative posts. The purpose was to register people’s emotional reaction to being surrounded by either good or bad news.

The results, which were published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science journal, revealed that, only in a slight measure, did people produce more negative or positive content, depending which end of the spectrum was assigned to them within the study.

Even though users were angry with the news that they might have been part of the study without having previously given their permission, Facebook’s terms of service allows the company to conduct such studies and everyone agrees to this when creating a Facebook account.

‘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,’ said the leading author of the study, Adam D.I. Kramer.

Facebook also released a statement, saying that: ‘We carefully consider what research we do and have a strong internal review process. There is no unnecessary collection of people's data in connection with these research initiatives and all data is stored securely.’

Given Facebook’s terms of service, it is highly unlikely that the company will have to face any legal issues.

However, the nature of the experiment and how it was conducted gives way to ethical questions.