Facebook's 'State-Controlled Media' Labels Lower Engagement

New study has shown that engagements are lowered once Facebook users noticed that an account is labeled as state-controlled media.

Observations from State-Controlled Media Accounts

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, Indiana University, and the University of Texas at Austin conducted a series of studies that "explored the casual impact of these labels." Within the study, they were able to found that the labels are causing a reduced engagement on social media once the users noticed that the account is labeled as a government-controlled media. Moreover, a lesser engagement is detected if the country is currently perceived as negative.

"By understanding the impact of labeling propaganda, social media companies, news media companies, and users will be able to implement and respond to the labels more appropriately," Avinash Collis explained.

In an experiment, posts were less likely to gain engagements if they were tagged to be originated from China and Russia. On the contrary, posts labeled as Canadian state-controlled media gained positive response.

Impact of Facebook's Labeling Policy

The study showed that Facebook's labeling policy had a significant effect to the engagement rate of a media. For instance, labeled posts were shared 34 percent less and liked 46 percent less compared to when it was posted without a label.

While Facebook's move to put label is lauded as good way to reduce propaganda, researchers still noted that some users may not even know the existence of labels on Facebook which can affect the efficacy of the study.

"Given that Facebook debuted the new labels quietly without informing users, many likely did not notice the labels, reducing their efficacy dramatically," co-author Nicholas Wolczynski stated.