Does the Bakshy Study Demonstrate An End to the Echo Chamber?
Bakshy (Facebook’s Data Team) studied who influences whom on Facebook. One of the findings is that users propagated novel information from weak ties. In interviews, Facebook’s PR people are claiming that this indicates an end to the online echo chamber. This is highly unlikely.
Across my friends and family, both strong and weak ties, one of the clear ramifications of Facebook sharing experience is a declining willingness to share political material with both strong and weak ties unless the topic is “safe”. An example of a safe topic is SOPA or corruption or information about the state of the economy with additional analysis. The primary justification is that job concerns are having a chilling effect on Facebook sharing. The secondary concern is horror over watching other weak and strong ties engage in political discussions online and realizing that people’s views are so distant from yours that it can lead to destruction of both your weak and strong ties.
The Facebook Data Team’s study actually points out a real problem with academia supporting Facebook’s decision to not allow open research of their systems. Since a lot of research eventually is shown to be false, follow-up on the study — engaging in critical review of the findings — isn’t systematically possible unless Facebook decides to allow it. So, Facebook gets to publish a study that shows that it’s view of the world is occurring, and the only people that can validate it are the people with the incentives to not question the results.
