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Facebook's No. 2 executive apologized on Wednesday over an experiment that 

manipulated the news feeds of more than 600,000 users

 Sheryl Sandberg said the study was communicated "poorly." The paper adds:



As we reported, the 2012 experiment was actually part of a scientific study that is published in the 

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Scientists showed one group of users positive items; other users were shown negative items. What they found is that "emotional contagion" happens online just as it does in the face-to-face world.

Sandberg's apology, by the way, comes just after several European data protection agencies announced they would look into whether Facebook broke local privacy laws with the experiment.

Science

Facebook's No. 2 executive apologized on Wednesday over an experiment that manipulated the news feeds of more than 600,000 users. The Wall Street Journal reports Sheryl Sandberg said the study was communicated "poorly."

Facebook's Sandberg apologizes for newsfeed experiment

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