It's part of a study into the impact of social media on political attitudes and behaviors during the upcoming election, which Facebook announced on Monday.
But the Washington Post later reported that those users could be paid up to $120.
So Facebook is now going to pay people to deactivate their IG and FB accounts before Election Day. It’s part of the research experiment announced Monday but WOW. This notice went out this week. pic.twitter.com/tV7DAw8F5I
— Elizabeth Dwoskin (@lizzadwoskin) September 3, 2020
Anyone who chooses to opt in – whether it’s completing surveys or deactivating FB or IG for a period of time – will be compensated. This is fairly standard for this type of academic research. More here: https://t.co/uw4B8XhsYY
— Liz Bourgeois (@Liz_Shepherd) September 3, 2020
The paper posted a screenshot of a survey sent to some Instagram users.
It tells them that if they opt in, they would deactivate their Facebook or Instagram accounts later this month. The accounts would be inactive for either one or six weeks, and some users would then have to take a survey before their accounts are re-activated.
Facebook expects up to 400,000 people to take part in the research.
The company says the study will be done by independent researchers who are not paid by Facebook, and the findings are not expected to be published until at least the middle of next year.
