New research published in Science and Nature suggest that Facebook and Instagram are not causing political polarization. But there are limitations in the research design that need to be discussed.
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Facebook sent a cease-and-desist letter to Tim Grossmann, the creator of InstaPy, and blocked his accounts – and those of his start-up – on the platform.
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Using thousands of data donations from AlgorithmWatch’s Instagram monitoring browser plug-in, German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung showed that posts from the far-right appear higher on users’ timelines.
Read moreFacebook forced us to shut down our Instagram monitoring project. We have written an open letter to European Union lawmakers asking them to use the Digital Services Act (DSA) to defend public interest research about how platforms influence our public sphere. It has been signed by 36 organizations and 6.126 individuals.
Read moreDigital platforms play an ever-increasing role in structuring and influencing public debate. Civil society watchdogs, researchers and journalists need to be able to hold them to account. But Facebook is increasingly fighting those who try. It shut down New York University’s Ad Observatory last week, and went after AlgorithmWatch, too. The European Parliament and EU Member States must act now to prevent further bullying.
Read moreAn experiment by AlgorithmWatch shows that online platforms optimize ad delivery in discriminatory ways. Advertisers who use them could be breaking the law.
Read moreScammers massively use Facebook’s advertising platform using so-called “cloakers” to evade automated checks. They would be very simple to detect but, despite announcements to the contrary, Facebook seems to tolerate them.
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Next week, AlgorithmWatch will participate in a workshop organised by Facebook, convening representatives of the company and external stakeholders to discuss whether and how a Facebook-appointed board could oversee the company's content removal practices.
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