Social media algorithms can curb misinformation, but do they?

TL;DR

This paper investigates how emergency changes to Facebook's news feed algorithm during the 2020 U.S. election impacted misinformation exposure, revealing that these measures reduced misinformation and may have affected previous study interpretations.

Contribution

It demonstrates that temporary emergency algorithm adjustments significantly reduced misinformation, influencing prior research conclusions.

Findings

Emergency measures reduced misinformation exposure

Control group data was affected by algorithm changes

Previous studies may have misinterpreted algorithm effects

Abstract

A recent article in $\textit{Science}$ by Guess et al. estimated the effect of Facebook's news feed algorithm on exposure to misinformation and political information among Facebook users. However, its reporting and conclusions did not account for a series of temporary emergency changes to Facebook's news feed algorithm in the wake of the 2020 U.S. presidential election that were designed to diminish the spread of voter-fraud misinformation. Here, we demonstrate that these emergency measures systematically reduced the amount of misinformation in the control group of the study, which was using the news feed algorithm. This issue may have led readers to misinterpret the results of the study and to conclude that the Facebook news feed algorithm used outside of the study period mitigates political misinformation as compared to reverse chronological feed.