The effects of Facebook and Instagram on the 2020 election: A deactivation experiment

Author:

Allcott Hunt1,Gentzkow Matthew1ORCID,Mason Winter2,Wilkins Arjun2,Barberá Pablo2,Brown Taylor2,Cisneros Juan Carlos1,Crespo-Tenorio Adriana2,Dimmery Drew23,Freelon Deen4,González-Bailón Sandra5ORCID,Guess Andrew M.6ORCID,Kim Young Mie7ORCID,Lazer David8,Malhotra Neil9ORCID,Moehler Devra2,Nair-Desai Sameer1,Nait El Barj Houda1,Nyhan Brendan10ORCID,Paixao de Queiroz Ana Carolina1,Pan Jennifer11ORCID,Settle Jaime12,Thorson Emily13,Tromble Rebekah14ORCID,Velasco Rivera Carlos2,Wittenbrink Benjamin1,Wojcieszak Magdalena1516ORCID,Zahedian Saam1,Franco Annie2,Kiewiet de Jonge Chad2,Stroud Natalie Jomini17,Tucker Joshua A.18ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Department of Economics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305

2. Meta, Menlo Park, CA 94025

3. Data Science Lab, Hertie School, Berlin 10117, Germany

4. University of North Carolina Hussman School of Journalism and Media, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27514

5. Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104

6. Department of Politics and School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540

7. School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706

8. Northeastern University Lab of Texts, Maps, and Networks, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115

9. Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305

10. Department of Government, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755

11. Department of Communication, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305

12. Department of Government, William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA 23185

13. Department of Political Science, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244

14. School of Media and Public Affairs and Institute for Data, Democracy, and Politics, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052

15. Department of Communication, University of California Davis, Davis, CA 95616

16. Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam 15791, Netherlands

17. Moody College of Communication, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712

18. Wilf Family Department of Politics and Center for Social Media and Politics, New York University, New York, NY 10012

Abstract

We study the effect of Facebook and Instagram access on political beliefs, attitudes, and behavior by randomizing a subset of 19,857 Facebook users and 15,585 Instagram users to deactivate their accounts for 6 wk before the 2020 U.S. election. We report four key findings. First, both Facebook and Instagram deactivation reduced an index of political participation (driven mainly by reduced participation online). Second, Facebook deactivation had no significant effect on an index of knowledge, but secondary analyses suggest that it reduced knowledge of general news while possibly also decreasing belief in misinformation circulating online. Third, Facebook deactivation may have reduced self-reported net votes for Trump, though this effect does not meet our preregistered significance threshold. Finally, the effects of both Facebook and Instagram deactivation on affective and issue polarization, perceived legitimacy of the election, candidate favorability, and voter turnout were all precisely estimated and close to zero.

Publisher

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

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