A confidential document allegedly revealed to The Australian this morning shows Facebook has been conducting research targeting teenagers and college-age Americans who are emotionally vulnerable and/or insecure.
The study, titled “Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks,” finds that emotions projected on Facebook posts can lead to others experiencing the same emotions without knowing why. The study abstract states:
These patterns can be easily manipulated to increase advertising revenue. According to the document leaked by two Australian Facebook execs, Facebook uses such algorithms to monitor when people feel “defeated,” “overwhelmed,” “stressed,” “anxious,” “nervous,” “stupid,” “silly,” “useless,” and a “failure.” That information is allegedly being used by advertisers to target Facebook users when they are feeling especially vulnerable. Young users gripping with negative body image, for example, are more likely to see ads about weight strategies in their news feed.
“Monday-Thursday is about building confidence; the weekend is for broadcasting achievements,” the document reports.
In an apology letter to The Australian, Facebook insisted it did not break any privacy rules. As an update to the study, Facebook’s data science team says they complied with all necessary user protection measures, but subtly mentions they “may have” not obtained full consent from study subjects.
“Adherence to the Common Rule is PNAS policy, but as a private company Facebook was under no obligation to conform to the provisions of the Common Rule when it collected the data used by the authors, and the Common Rule does not preclude their use of the data,” the statement reads, adding, “It is nevertheless a matter of concern that the collection of the data by Facebook may have involved practices that were not fully consistent with the principles of obtaining informed consent and allowing participants to opt out.”
