In 2018, a change in Facebook algorithms led to a significant increase in the activity of local Republican groups, despite their Democratic counterparts posting more frequently. He writes about NBC News.

Research & Politics researchers measured engagement with local Democratic and Republican group social media posts from 2016-2021. They found that in 2018, a few months after Facebook’s algorithm changed, there was a significant increase in page engagement. “The Big Old Party” On Facebook, not Twitter.

“It’s possible that the content score changes caused total local GOP posts to double compared to local Democratic Party posts in the first half of 2019, but the latter were posted more frequently during the same period,” the researchers said.

Without access to the homepage ranking algorithm, it’s hard to know exactly what’s causing the scrolling, they said. However, experts noted that the findings are consistent with previous research in the Facebook Documentation.

A Meta spokesperson described the researchers’ information as “illogical” and inaccurate.

“This is inconsistent with what the algorithm actually does, which is to reduce the amount of publicly available content on the platform, such as political content,” a company spokesperson said.

He suggested that the rise in activity coincided with an election cycle that has traditionally caused “significant” divisions between supporters of both political forces.

Recall that in October 2021, former Facebook employee Francis Haugen accused the social network of deliberately using algorithms to incite hatred for profit.

That same month, Facebook agreed to open its content sorting tools to regulators to prove they’re harmless.

At the end of October, against the background of the scandal, the company carried out a large-scale rebranding, changing its name to Meta.