Psychological experiment has jeopardised advertisers’ trust in Facebook, says ISBA
Facebook’s psychological experiment with news feed has jeopardised consumer and advertiser trust, according to ISBA.
Experiment: Facebook has been criticised
The social network has faced a backlash of criticism over the last few days after it revealed it had run a week-long experiment which saw it manipulate the news feeds of 689,000 users as part of a secret mood altering experiment.
Ad trade body ISBA has said Facebook will have to “work hard” to maintain commitment from advertisers, which represent the majority of its income.
David Ellison, ISBA’s marketing services manager, said: “Facebook has done the right thing by accepting responsibility quickly. But revelations about this ‘social experiment’ could be damaging to the way many of its users view the service.
“Advertisers and brand owners will fear that this careless abuse of trust may tarnish them by association.”
ISBA said it was encouraged that Facebook has publicly accepted responsibility for the upset the event caused its users, and said it will be tracking the result of the ICO investigation into the study.
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg yesterday apologised for upset caused by the experiment.