Facebook will begin paying people to deactivate their Facebook and Instagram accounts for 1 – 6 weeks leading up to the Presidential Election in November.
It’s all part of a research project to see just how big of an impact social media makes on democracy.
So Facebook is now going to pay people to deactivate their IG and FB accounts before Election Day. It’s part of the research experiment announced Monday but WOW. This notice went out this week. pic.twitter.com/tV7DAw8F5I
— Elizabeth Dwoskin (@lizzadwoskin) September 3, 2020
“To continue to amplify all that is good for democracy on social media, and mitigate against that which is not, we need more objective, dispassionate, empirically grounded research. We need to better understand whether social media makes us more polarized as a society, or if it largely reflects the divisions that already exist; if it helps people to become better informed about politics, or less; or if it affects people’s attitudes towards government and democracy, including whether and how they vote. “
“To continue to amplify all that is good for democracy on social media, and mitigate against that which is not, we need more objective, dispassionate, empirically grounded research. We need to better understand whether social media makes us more polarized as a society, or if it largely reflects the divisions that already exist; if it helps people to become better informed about politics, or less; or if it affects people’s attitudes towards government and democracy, including whether and how they vote. “
Facebook will offer between $10 and $20 a week to deactivate your account. Facebook Spokesperson, Liz Bourgeous said,
“Anyone who chooses to opt in- whether it’s completing surveys or deactivating FB or IG for a period of time – will be compensated.
This is fairly standard for this type of academic research.”
