Facebook announced Monday its first research grants to academics studying the impact of social media on elections, part of an effort to prevent manipulation of social platforms.
The leading social network said some 60 researchers from 30 academic institutions across 11 countries were selected under a review process by the Social Science Research Council and the independent group Social Science One.
Facebook began the research initiative last year after revelations of foreign influence campaigns on the 2016 US election and the Brexit vote in Britain.
It began soliciting proposals last year, and on Monday unveiled its first research grants.
"To assure the independence of the research and the researchers, Facebook did not play any role in the selection of the individuals or their projects and will have no role in directing the findings or conclusions of the research," said a blog post by Facebook executives Elliot Schrage and Chaya Nayak.
"We hope this initiative will deepen public understanding of the role social media has on elections and democracy and help Facebook and other companies improve their products and practices."
"Some of these steps include building a process to remove personally identifiable information from the data set and only allowing researcher access to the data set through a secure portal."
"Elections in India are already underway, the European Parliamentary elections will take place in short order, and the US presidential primary campaigns have begun in earnest. Concerns about disinformation, polarization, political advertising, and the role of platforms in the information ecosystem have not diminished. If anything, they have heightened."
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