Anger sparked by Facebook news feed experiment

Research conducted by Facebook Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) in 2012 related to its news feed content has sparked criticism that the social network with some 800 million daily users has used those who log on as social guinea pigs, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Facebook data scientists enabled an algorithm for one week to hide content that contained words with positive or negative emotions from the news feeds of nearly 700,000 users to determine whether it could alter the emotional state of users and prompt them to post more positive or negative content.

The experiment found people who had negative content reduced posted statuses that were generally more positive and the opposite was true for those who had positive content reduced. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published the results of the research in March.

Read more from the Wall Street Journal.