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Facebook Fallout, Facts and Frenzy

Posted by samzenpus on from the to-friend-or-not-to-friend dept.

redletterdave (2493036) writes Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said the company's experiment designed to purposefully manipulate the emotions of its users was communicated "poorly". Sandberg's public comments, which were the first from any Facebook executive following the discovery of the one-week psychological study, were made while attending a meeting with small businesses in India that advertise on Facebook. "This was part of ongoing research companies do to test different products, and that was what it was," Sandberg said. "It was poorly communicated. And for that communication we apologize. We never meant to upset you." anavictoriasaavedra points out this article that questions how much of this outrage over an old press release is justified and what's lead to the media frenzy. Sometimes editors at media outlets get a little panicked when there's a big story swirling around and they haven't done anything with it. It all started as a largely ignored paper about the number of positive and negative words people use in Facebook posts. Now it's a major scandal. The New York Times connected the Facebook experiment to suicides. The story was headlined, Should Facebook Manipulate Users, and it rests on the questionable assumption that such manipulation has happened. Stories that ran over the weekend raised serious questions about the lack of informed consent used in the experiment, which was done by researchers at Cornell and Facebook and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. But to say Facebook’s slight alteration of news feeds caused people to suffer depression seems to be unsupported by any kind of data or logic.

4 of 160 comments (clear)

  1. We're Sorry by dcw3 · · Score: 5, Funny

    We're sorry....
    .
    .
    . ...that we got caught.

    --
    Just another day in Paradise
    1. Re:We're Sorry by schlachter · · Score: 5, Funny

      Facebook has released several different responses to this issue and is closely monitoring how people in each of the different experimental groups respond to these releases.

      --
      My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
  2. Passive aggressive much? by Sockatume · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Dear customers. We are really sorry that you're so upset at our great study. We're super glad that we did the study but so very very sorry that you guys were upset by it. When we do it again, let's work together to find a way that you could just not be so upset about it."

    --
    No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  3. Time to get meta by rebelwarlock · · Score: 3, Funny

    Jokes on you guys - the "leak" was fictional. The real experiment is the public's reaction to this.