Facebook faces UK probe over covert news feed alterations
Facebook is reportedly facing an investigation by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as the fallout from its psychological experiment in altering the emotions of its users continues to play out.
The fracas broke when Facebook announced it had allowed researchers to tamper with people’s news feeds to exaggerate positive or negative stories – before recording what impact this had on its own posted content.
Facebook officials are set for a grilling by the body as they seek to ask questions as to how the initiative came to be sanctioned, according to the Financial Times.
An ICO spokesperson refused to be drawn on which specific rules Facebook is suspected of falling foul of but it does have the power to levy fines of as much as £500k.
One of the researchers behind the project, Adam Kramer, has since apologised for any anxiety caused, writing on Facebook: “The goal of all our research at Facebook is to learn how to provide a better service. Having written and designed this experiment myself, I can tell you that our goal was never to upset anyone. I can understand why some people have concerns about it, and my co-authors and I are very sorry for the way the paper described the research and any anxiety it caused.”
Facebook’s director of policy in Europe, Richard Allan, said: “It’s clear that people were upset by this study and we take responsibility for it. We want to do better in the future and are improving our process based on this feedback.”