Facebook Pages saw increased engagement for local GOP groups on local Democratic Party pages when news of a change to Facebook’s algorithm came out in 2018. According to a new study.
The study, published Wednesday in Research & Politics, details the increasing interaction between Facebook’s exclusive GOP pages and their Democratic counterparts for 2019.
The increase includes “doubling” local GOP party posts compared to their pages with Democratic posts – posts that happened more often – on their pages in the first half of 2019, the study says .
“Despite Facebook’s motivation, their decision to change the algorithm could offer local Republican parties more opportunities to connect with citizens and establish a political reality for Americans,” the authors of the study in their abstract.
“The fact that private companies can easily control the flow of political information to millions of Americans raises clear questions about the state of democracy.
Kevin Rinning, assistant professor of political science at the University of Miami and co-author of the paper, shared the “strange pattern” he and other co-authors found on social media.
Alone, In an interview with NBC News, he claimed that Facebook’s files on Wall Street Journal stories have “made him wonder if Facebook has played a role in changing data” since 2018, according to NBC News .
Danny Lever, Meta spokesman for Facebook’s parent company, told NBC News that the study “doesn’t match” what Facebook’s 2018 change actually made to prioritize “essential social engagement “for the platform.
Instead, the trends here coincide with the divisive election cycle, and as differences between U.S. political parties widen over the decades, the idea that changing Facebook rankings will fundamentally change. how people choose to interact with political parties. “It’s incredible,” Levery told NBC News.
Source: Huffpost
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.