No More Promiscuous Newsfeed Experimentation, Facebook Lays Out Research Guidelines

This summer, many Facebook users were appalled that the social networking behemoth had performed psychological research just a few years earlier. The research lead to formal complaints from the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and an outcry from users.

The uproar didn’t go unnoticed as today Facebook has released a new framework for research that will cover all internal work performed on its users.

The new research criteria include four main points including research guidelines, research review by senior researchers, formal research training and a public research website.

The biggest guideline included pertained to specific groups/populations or personal tests. Anything that falls into these categories will require an enhanced review process that must be approved before the work can begin. Another research caveat is that any collaborative research with someone from the academic community will also require further review.

The new research website will be updated regularly and feature all public academic research. For more information, see the official blog post or the new Facebook research site.