Facebook launches new research guidelines in wake of public anger
Facebook has overhauled its research and experiment rules and guidelines governing internal and academic research in the wake of public anger surrounding secret experiments conducted on members by psychologists.
New policies include clearer guidelines on what is unacceptable, a review panel to scrutinise proposed research and additional training for employees.
It follows a PR disaster for the social media firm when it authorised researchers to manipulate people’s news feeds without their knowledge in order to try and influence their behaviour, for which Facebook later apologised.
Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer said: “We’re committed to doing research to make Facebook better, but we want to do it in the most responsible way.”
The new policy will be targeted at studies pertaining to ‘particular groups or populations’ or ‘deeply personal’ content.