How Facebook's algorithm led a test user in India to fake news, gore

Photos of beheadings and jingoistic scenes of violence fill hypothetical account's feed days after it set up in Feb 2019 to see the content Facebook recommends users.

In February 2019, Facebook Inc. set up a test account in India to determine how its own algorithms affect what people see in one of its fastest growing and most important overseas markets. The results stunned the company’s own staff.

Within three weeks, the new user’s feed turned into a maelstrom of fake news and incendiary images. There were graphic photos of beheadings, doctored images of India air strikes against Pakistan and jingoistic scenes of violence. One group for “things that make you laugh” included fake news of 300 terrorists who died in a bombing in Pakistan. 

“I’ve seen more