IDDP Director Joins Major Study of Facebook’s Effect on Elections

Rebekah Tromble and a team of independent researchers will collaborate on a large-scale, opt-in study of social media users’ electoral behavior.

September 8, 2020

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An independent group of scholars including the George Washington University’s Rebekah Tromble will team up with Facebook researchers to conduct a major study of the social media giant’s effect on the 2020 presidential elections this fall. And Facebook, though cooperating with the study, will have no say in the framing or analysis of the results. 

Dr. Tromble, director of the Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics and an associate professor in the School of Media and Public Affairs, said the study presents an unprecedented opportunity.

“It’s absolutely essential that the public understand the impacts of social media on democratic societies, but as researchers we’ve been hampered by our limited access to the data,” she said. “This study is a chance for us to look much more directly and fully at a broad range of information we’ve not had access to before.”

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