Facebook is Having Luce Research Conduct a Survey to find out what "Thought Leaders" Think of Social Media

Luce Research, a market-research agency, has been reaching out to tech journalists and other “thought leaders” on Facebook’s behalf and offering them $350 for an interview to know what they think about social media. The subjects to be discussed include content moderation, security and “the integrity of information on social media“.

The contacted personnel include multiple Business Insider as well as The New York Times employees among others. They have been reached out via an email sent out by Luce Research. According to the market-research firm, it is looking to gather key opinion formers in the US to capture their take on the above mentioned subjects and other current issues with the social media.

The most prominent topics that are to be discussed in the interview are “Security and privacy on social media”, “How content shared on social media should be moderated” and “Responsibility for the integrity of information on social media”.

The timing of the survey is quite interesting, considering how Facebook is currently in hot waters for various privacy and misinformation-related scandals on its platform. However, this shows that Facebook is trying to stay updated with the public opinion about itself and how the generally-raised issues are affecting its business. The questionable thing in this scenario is how the company is reaching out to those who regularly report or edit news about it.

As mentioned above, a number of Business Insider’s editorial team members were invited for the interview. Additionally, Susan Fowler from The New York Times was also sent an email.

A research firm hired by Facebook is offering tech journalists $350 to tell it what they think about social networking sites
Screenshot: Rob Price / Twitter

Luce Research is offering every survey-taker $350 in return, which they can donate to charity, if they choose to.


In the email, the President of Luce Research mentions that his firm is working with the research consultancy firm, Republic, on an important research project for Facebook. The research is centered on attitudes towards social media, the role of social media in today’s society as well as the priorities that social media companies should be setting, keeping in mind the requirements of the current time.

Bertie Thomson, a Facebook spokesperson, said that Facebook stayed hands-off during the selection of survey participants for the sole purpose of staying away from the kinds of issues raised by the people.

In addition to Tech Journalists, other people that are being reached out for the survey belong to categories such as academics, entrepreneurs, business leaders and advocacy organizations, according to Thomson.

Luce Research hasn’t issued a comment yet.

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Featured photo: Christophe Morin/IP3/Getty Images
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