Facebook is helping researchers learn about its platform, including marginalized groups and other “unknown” movements, and the latest The API, which will be available later this year, will enable students to read what is divided into categories and pages.
It comes more than three years after Facebook shut down its main platform following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which has led to the suspension of outsiders from social networking sites, which the company says it wants to change now.
The new API allows “qualified searchers” to study pages that encounter people, groups and events in the United States, as well as recent posts from users (Facebook claims to hide people’s names and @-words to protect user privacy.) Researchers have also found access to follower statistics as well as group statistics, events and pages.
“It was designed specifically for researchers,” said Chaya Nayak, executive director of Open of Transparency on Facebook. “Compared to other research findings like CrowdTangle, the Researcher API will integrate US pages, events, and social media groups on Facebook, regardless of the number of followers. ”
Facebook’s support of third parties was a major issue last year. The company has been widely criticized for QAnon, which was once considered a fringe movement, until it actually moved. Following the election, Facebook has failed to recognize the dangers of “, which helped spark the violence on January 6.
Allowing researchers who rely on false or dangerous information to study small groups can help Facebook to better prepare for the next group that will be destroyed on the platform. Although the Researcher’s API is only looking at the US to launch, Nayak said the company is planning to add to “other geographies.” He also said that in the future, Facebook will use research to see “changes in our sales.”
Facebook’s relationship with researchers who want to learn on the platform has sometimes been strained in recent years. Some students say the company makes to get the least that it offers. And social networking sites have been widely criticized for trying to prevent researchers from studying New York University. last year.
In particular, it seems that the new Researcher API does not provide additional advertising or notification options. Instead, it simply depends on the records that are already in the public domain. But, if the company makes the API spread to researchers, it can be very useful for those who are learning lies, threats or other things that affect Facebook.
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