Great News! Facebook Swears It Won’t Try to Control Elections

In a series of interviews in New Dehli on Wednesday, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg addressed a 2012 psychological study in which the company manipulated users’ newsfeeds to test whether the emotions were contagious via social media.

“This was part of ongoing research companies do to test different products, and that was what it was; it was poorly communicated,” she said. “And for that communication we apologize. We never meant to upset you.”

But one interviewer followed up with a question about whether Facebook could use what it learned about manipulating emotions to affect behavior, say by swinging an election. “Will Mark Zuckerberg decide the future of a country?” she asked.

“I want to be clear — Facebook can’t control emotions and cannot and will not try to control emotions,” Sandberg replied, adding, “Facebook would never try to control elections.”

Watch the video below, via NDTV:

[h/t Mashable]

[Image via Shutterstock]

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