Dec 29, 2022
NIH and medical research institutions funded or sponsored a dozen studies involving Facebook with targets include Latinos, African Americans, holiday travelers, states with lower COVID vaccination rates and even Mayan-language speakers. Legislation that would use federal agencies to "nudge" social media platforms to reduce the spread of "harmful content" isn't going anywhere in the waning days of the 117th Congress. As evidenced by the ongoing release of the "Twitter Files," however, that's no impediment to the government - and the research universities that so heavily depend on federal funding - enlisting Big Tech to promote favored narratives and throttle competing arguments on contentious topics. Federal agencies and U.S. universities together have funded or sponsored a dozen studies mentioning Facebook and COVID-19, according to the National Institutes of Health's ClinicalTrials.gov database. While some concern behaviors and health outco