Late last week, Facebook revealed it had manipulated a randomly selected number of users’ news feeds in a psychological experiment to see if mood is essentially contagious. Researchers determined it was. But public outcry for such an experiment without users’ consent prompted lead researcher Adam Kramer to post a public apology. In January 2012, Facebook selected 689,003 users and changed the number of positive and negative posts in their feeds. Users who saw more positive posts tended to write positive posts and vice versa. The research was in line with Facebook’s terms of service, but some say it was unethical, The New York Times reports. Meanwhile, in the U.S., Facebook is taking on the New York district attorney’s office for its seizure of 381 disabled retirees’ profiles in a fraud investigation. (Registration may be required to access this story.)
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