<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:x-small"><br clear="all"></div><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/10/what-facebook-did/542502/?utm_source=atltw">https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/10/what-facebook-did/542502/?utm_source=atltw</a><br><br><br><p>We’ve known since at least 2012 that Facebook was a powerful, 
non-neutral force in electoral politics. In that year, a combined 
University of California, San Diego and Facebook research team led by 
James Fowler published <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11421.epdf?referrer_access_token=3hEGlbqHkEuGY21mtWU9ytRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0O-9kUewX3bdNdtBQCWYxxxyT1mLWjysh846djISzhdVQ8te60SwiEQkr8UOR_w6foAEMGP1agrQAR91rzU45X9hd7s6U3lIzEIbd35aX7ruNgD1yER8FcGDfCZKhbg6O9VCsEgb3kEZAqVvcbtCbcEZFbuSfvBx75f4RZqlS8DhyQ4yVH7PQ2vxssZZOlc6z5EWL8qXh-xIkjAG_gl0XMoATarImt_N_loxzfUHP134AZ9TGXojQKJCt64RPRMU58%3D&tracking_referrer=www.theatlantic.com">a study in <em>Nature</em></a>,
 which argued that Facebook’s “I Voted” button had driven a small but 
measurable increase in turnout, primarily among young people.</p><p>Rebecca Rosen’s 2012 story, “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/11/did-facebook-give-democrats-the-upper-hand/264937/">Did Facebook Give Democrats the Upper Hand?</a>”
 relied on new research from Fowler, et al., about the presidential 
election that year. Again, the conclusion of their work was that 
Facebook’s get-out-the-vote message could have driven a substantial 
chunk of the increase in youth voter participation in the 2012 general 
election. Fowler told Rosen that it was “even possible that Facebook is 
completely responsible” for the youth voter increase. And because a 
higher proportion of young people vote Democratic than the general 
population, the net effect of Facebook’s GOTV effort would have been to 
help the Dems.</p><p><br></p><p>The research showed that a small design change by Facebook could have 
electoral repercussions, especially with America’s electoral-college 
format in which a few hotly contested states have a disproportionate 
impact on the national outcome. And the pro-liberal effect it implied 
became enshrined as an axiom of how campaign staffers, reporters, and 
academics viewed social media.</p><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr">Anyega M Jefferson<br><br></div><div><a href="mailto:jeffersonanyega@gmail.com" target="_blank">jeffersonanyega@gmail.com</a><br><br>0703824326<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br>Start where you are,use what you have and do what you can.<br><br></div></div></div></div>
</div>