Facebook says it will limit future research after controversial mood study

In response to user protests over its controversial mood study, Facebook today said it has created “a new framework” which will limit and guide the way future research is conducted.

Facebook vaguely states on its blog that it has  “given researchers clearer guidelines,” and created an internal panel “that will review projects.”

Here’s the gist of the new framework, according to Facebook:

• Guidelines: we’ve given researchers clearer guidelines. If proposed work is focused on studying particular groups or populations (such as people of a certain age) or if it relates to content that may be considered deeply personal (such as emotions) it will go through an enhanced review process before research can begin. The guidelines also require further review if the work involves a collaboration with someone in the academic community.
• Review: we’ve created a panel including our most senior subject-area researchers, along with people from our engineering, research, legal, privacy and policy teams, that will review projects falling within these guidelines. This is in addition to our existing privacy cross-functional review for products and research.
• Training: we’ve incorporated education on our research practices into Facebook’s six-week training program, called bootcamp, that new engineers go through, as well as training for others doing research. We’ll also include a section on research in the annual privacy and security training that is required of everyone at Facebook.
• Research website: our published academic research is now available at a single location and will be updated regularly.