Facebook ran a 61-million-user experiment on political mobilization in 2010

Evidence

In 2012 Facebook researchers startled the public with an article provocatively titled “A 61-Million-Person Experiment in Social Influence and Political Mobilization,” published in the scientific journal Nature. In this controlled, randomized study conducted during the run-up to the 2010 US Congressional midterm elections, the researchers experimentally manipulated the social and informational content of voting-related messages in the news feeds of nearly 61 million Facebook users while also establishing a control group. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 935

Categorization

• QUESTION: The 2012 publication date is notable — the experiment uses 2010 data. Worth checking what the exact timeline and publication gap reveal about Facebook’s incentives.
• XREF: connects to: Facebook’s voting experiment proved social pressure can be instrumentally deployed at scale. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1388; Facebook’s manipulated social messages produced 340,000 additional votes in 2010 — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 938; Seed participants’ Facebook friends expanded 270,000 people into 70 million profiles — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 496

Broader Connections

• Facebook’s manipulated social messages produced 340,000 additional votes in 2010 #expands (0.95) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 938
• Facebook’s voting experiment proved social pressure can be instrumentally deployed at scale. #corroborates (0.92) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1388