Facebook, along with its sister website Instagram, is willing to pay tens of thousands to people who are willing to quit the apps ahead of the U.S. elections as part of a study that they are conducting.
Facebook is Looking for Volunteers
According to a Business Insider report, the announcement has been made by The Washington Post journalist Elizabeth Dwoskin on her official Twitter account, wherein she posted images of screenshots of the announcement on Instagram.
The company has recently announced its plans to start a study with the help of 17 outside academic researchers to "better understand the impact of Facebook and Instagram on key political attitudes and behaviors."
Basically, the company aims to know how the impact of the platform on politics.
"It will examine the impact of how people interact with our products, including content shared in News Feed and across Instagram, and the role of features like content ranking systems," a company spokesperson said.
The images the journalist published online shows a survey by the company, asking how much users are willing to be paid to deactivate from the social media apps.
So Facebook is now going to pay people to deactivate their IG and FB accounts before Election Day. It’s part of the research experiment announced Monday but WOW. This notice went out this week. pic.twitter.com/tV7DAw8F5I— Elizabeth Dwoskin (@lizzadwoskin) September 3, 2020
Expect Payment in Exchange for Deactivating
Based on the survey, the users will have to deactivate for either one week or six weeks, but they will be unable to choose which of these time periods they will have to deactivate as they will only know when the study starts.
When the study starts, they will have to stop using the apps for the entire time they have been chosen to deactivate.
So, how much will they be paid?
According to the survey, the willing participants will be paid weekly, depending on how long they are chosen to deactivate.
For example, those who are willing to deactivate for a week can receive $10 if they are chosen, while those who are willing to endure without Instagram or Facebook longer can receive around $60.
The survey needs volunteers to check how much they are willing to be paid, either at $10 per week (payment ranges from $10 to $60), $15 per week (payment ranges from $15 to $90), or $20 per week (payment ranges from $20 to $120).
Moreover, regardless of how long they are chosen to deactivate, they can also be paid for taking a survey right after the U.S. elections on November 3.
Those who will be chosen to deactivate for the entire duration of the election will have to answer the survey before they can reactivate their account.
Willing participants will be able to know the full details of the study later this month, including how long they will have to deactivate.
According to the news outlet, Facebook expects around 200,000 to 400,000 people will eventually.
Facebook spokesperson Liz Bourgeois replied on Dwoskin's tweet, saying that anyone who chooses to participate in the study, whether by deactivating their Facebook or Instagram accounts or by simply answering the survey, will be compensated and that it's the norm in these types of academic researches.
The company also said they are not expecting the study results by "mid-2021 at the earliest."
