In 2012 Facebook researchers startled the public with an article provocatively titled “A 61-Million-Person Experiment in Social Influence and Political Mobilization,” published in the scientific journal Nature. In this controlled, randomized study conducted during the run-up to the 2010 US Congressional midterm elections, the researchers experimentally manipulated the social and informational content of voting-related messages in the news feeds of nearly 61 million Facebook users while also establishing a control group.

Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Cap…, loc. 935