Comment on The simple test that blew up the FTC's case against Meta
mbirth@lemmy.ml 4 days ago
John List, a professor at the University of Chicago, recruited 6,000 participants for a study. With permission, he installed tracking software on their phones. And then he made them an offer: for every hour that the participant did not use Facebook or Instagram, he would pay them $4. (Participants only had to give up one app; the Facebook holdout group was allowed to use Instagram and vice versa.)
Initial results:
Facebook → YouTube, Instagram, TikTok
Instagram → YouTube, Facebook, TikTok
Corrected for time spent on platforms:
Facebook → Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat
Instagram → TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat
xthexder@l.sw0.com 3 days ago
Instagram is also Meta, so it doesn’t look like anyone actually left Meta’s platform
teawrecks@sopuli.xyz 3 days ago
If they were required to leave all meta platforms, then what would the experiment show? It sounds like the intention was to see where people shifted their time when they stopped using one meta product. If FB users primarily went to IG and vice versa, then it would indicate they held a monopoly. But it sounds like IG users primarily switched to TikTok and YouTube, not FB, indicating they are different products from each other and have different competition.