Meta Manipulated 700,000 Users' News Feeds Without Consent in Emotion Study
Meta (Facebook)
What happened
Facebook conducted a large-scale psychological experiment on approximately 689,000 users, systematically altering their News Feed algorithms to test whether emotions were contagious online. The study was published without users ever being informed they were research subjects.
Root cause
Algorithmic manipulation of user experience for research purposes without explicit informed consent; no ethics review process for experiments involving personal psychological outcomes.
Architectural failure
No ethics review board approval required before deploying experimental algorithmic changes; data governance framework did not restrict use of personal data for psychological experimentation without consent.
Outcome
FTC launched an inquiry. UK ICO investigated. Led to changes in Facebook's internal research review processes.
Architectural Failure Patterns
These pattern categories on aipatterns.com.au describe the systemic failure modes this incident exhibited.
Cite this incident
https://corporateai.com.au/incidents/meta-emotional-contagion-2014Quick facts
- Date
- 17 June 2014
- Organisation
- Meta (Facebook)
- Sector
- Other
- Severity
- High
- Regulatory bodies
- FTC Act Section 5Common Rule (45 CFR 46)GDPR (analogous)Belmont Report Principles
- Tags
- research-ethicsconsentpsychological-manipulationsocial-mediaprivacybehavioural-ai
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Explore failure patterns
aipatterns.com.au