Facebook announces election-based independent research initiative as part of its continuing hearts and minds campaign

In the last month, Facebook has released a flurry of announcements on its efforts to improve its News Feed, ad transparency and privacy controls for users. Today, Facebook announced it had initiated a new independent research project seeking to determine social media’s impact on elections. The project is funded by a seven different foundations — including the Democracy Fund, the Charles Koch Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Facebook says it does not have the right to review or approve the research findings prior to publication. “We’re excited about this initiative for two important reasons,” writes Facebook’s VP of communications and policy, Elliot Schrage, and its director of research, David Ginsberg in a post on Facebook’s news blog.