Facebook Is Reportedly Paying Users To Deactivate Their Facebook And Instagram Accounts Ahead Of The Election

Facebook is paying users to shut down their Facebook and Instagram accounts ahead of the 2020 United States Presidential Election. On Thursday, Washington Post reporter Elizabeth Dwoskin posted screenshots on Twitter and wrote in the tweet that as part of the company’s latest study on how social media impacts democracy, Facebook is paying people to sign off of Facebook’s products including Instagram and Facebook ahead of the election day.

Earlier this week, the social media giant announced that it was partnering with outside researchers to study the impact of Facebook’s social media products on society during the upcoming 2020 United States Presidential Election. The company expects that nearly 200,000-400,000 people will opt into the project. Once these users have opted into the project, the social media giant will be able to see how these users interact with Facebook’s products including Instagram as well as Facebook.

On 31st August of this year, the company explained in a blog post that it needs more objective, dispassionate, empirically ground research to continue to amplify all that what is good for democracy on social media platforms. Facebook wrote that the company constantly works to enhance the way Facebook’s services foster democratic participation. For instance, Facebook rolled out the Voting Information Center this month as part of the largest ever voted voter information campaign in the United States. However, it does not mean that the company has completely researched all of its impacts yet, Facebook added.

That is why the company is announcing a new research partnership to better understand the impact of Instagram as well as Facebook on key political attitudes and behaviors during the 2020 United States Presidential Election. On Thursday, The Washington Post posted screenshots that display an Instagram pop-up asking people to choose how much money they would be willing to receive in order to shut down their Facebook and Instagram accounts ahead of the United States Presidential Election. Users are given the options of $10, $15, and $20 each week since some people would be asked to leave the social media platform for one week, while other users could be asked to deactivate their Facebook and Instagram accounts for up to six weeks.

On Thursday, Liz Bourgeous, a company’s spokesman also confirmed in a tweet that Facebook would be paying people who complete surveys or leave the platform as part of Facebook’s research. According to the social media giant, Facebook does not expect to release the findings of its research until at least the middle of 2021.



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