Meta and the 2020 elections: what influence?

Greg Taieb · · 2 min read

Remember the 2020 US presidential election?

Well, I just learned that Meta (you know, the company formerly known as Facebook) did a little experiment during this time. And guess what? The results are more complicated than you think.

Four studies have been published, analyzing data from Facebook users in the United States from September to December 2020, during and just after the US presidential election. Their goal? See how the Facebook and Instagram platforms influence the political beliefs of its users

Independent researchers had unprecedented access to Meta data and were even able to modify the feeds of tens of thousands of people to observe their behavior.

Meta’s Election Research Opens More Questions Than It Answers
Researchers were given unprecedented access to Meta’s data during the 2020 elections. Meta says their results show its platforms don’t cause political polarization. That’s not entirely true.
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For example, one study prevented users to see "reshared" posts, another presented Instagram and Facebook feeds in reverse chronological order.

Pretty interesting, right?

But here's the rub, Meta concluded that there was little evidence that its platforms cause harmful political polarization.

Amazing isn’t it?

However, researchers point out that the studies are much more limited and leave many questions unanswered. For example, studies focused on a specific three-month period leading up to the 2020 presidential election. Three months is short, right? Not really representative of your experience on the platform, is it?

And that's not all. A study found that sharing of content from untrustworthy sources is high. And guess what? Most of the misinformation captured by fact-checkers is concentrated and exclusively consumed by conservative users. A bit worrying, right?

Finally, and this is where it gets really interesting, the published studies did not seek to specifically depolarize users. So while we have reason to be concerned about the impact of social media on politics, we don't really know what solutions might solve the problem.

So, what do you think about all this? Don’t hesitate to share your thoughts with us in the comments.