Facebook's algorithm change in 2018 benefitted Republican groups, researchers say
. Namely, that a change meant to emphasize content from family and friends wound up making News Feed more divisive by incentivizing negative posts., used CrowdTangle data to measure engagement with posts from local Democratic and Republican groups on Facebook and Twitter between January 2016 and August 2021.
Of course without the actual algorithm we cannot say what caused the change in 2018. We can say there was a change, specifically on Facebook, and that it impacted a large number of local Republican parties.
The researchers say it’s “difficult” to know for sure what caused the shift toward the end of 2018. But they note that their findings broadly align with what we know about Facebook’s algorithm change, and the reaction to it, thanks to the Facebook Papers. The company had announced a