Facebook will be paying its users ahead of the 2020 U.S. elections. The social media site expects 200,000 to 400,000 to participate in the study.

Facebook
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Facebook is one of the leading social media sites that could impact the 2020 U.S. elections. The social media site will be paying its users to deactivate their accounts six weeks before the election. This is according to Elizabeth Dwoskin, Washington Post reporter. 

In a Twitter post, Dwoskin shared a screenshot from an Instagram post. It said, "We'd like to know how much you'd need to be paid in for deactivating your Instagram account...in late September for either [one] week or [six] weeks. To participate, you must be willing to deactivate your account for both periods and not use Instagram during that time."

This effort is part of the new research of Facebook that the company announced on Aug.31. In their blog post, they wrote, "better understand the impact of Facebook and Instagram on key political attitudes and behaviors during the U.S. 2020 elections."

Moreover, the survey questions also ask their users how they are willing to be paid for every week in deactivating their accounts. They include $10, $15, and $20 per week. The notice also made it clear that those who will participate should be willing to deactivate their account for six weeks. 

Additionally, users will be asked to complete the survey before they can reactivate their accounts. Meanwhile, a news outlet tried to reach out with Facebook to comment on their new research, but they did not respond yet as of this time.

The new research's main purpose is to determine o how the social media site can impact or not impact the voters' decision. Alex Stamos, a cybersecurity expert, said the study participants could act as the control group of the researchers. 

Recently, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that all new political ads would be banned one week before the election. This is to avoid misleading information and fake news. However, present political ads will throughout the election cycle. 

In a blog post, Facebook wrote, "As a company, we've looked hard at what went wrong with Russian interference in 2016 and made some big changes. There are now three times as many people working on safety and security issues, more than 35,000 in total, and we work closely with government and law enforcement."

The social media site also expects around 200,000 to 400,000 Facebook users to participate in their new research. Expected users are those who have accounts either on Facebook or Instagram. They will take part in different surveys or agreeing to see a different product experience. 

It is undeniable that Facebook is one of the best ways to communicate with voters. In fact, there are many pages created either by the candidate's campaign committee or their supporters. This is a potential marketing tool to get millions of votes.

Meanwhile, it cannot be denied that Facebook and other social media sites can spread misleading information and fake news. 

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