Social media discourse.
What do people watch and talk about on social media platforms?
The media is restricted by journalistic standards and editors, but on social media almost anything can be said (with minimal censorship).
Over 60 million Pakistanis are on Facebook and Instagram.
What are people actually talking about? What content gets the most attention?
To answer these questions, we have applied for researcher access to Meta's Content Library, which opens the public record of Facebook and Instagram: the posts, the reels, the comments, and, for the first time, how many people actually saw each one. We are working towards answering these questions:
What content gets the most attention?
Mostly, an algorithm decides what you end up seeing on these platforms. It looks at your interests and what the post has to offer to decide whether to show it to you. But what gets selected usually? Does hate get more visibility? Does a political party get more views? Do people share misinformation more than real news?
Are people living in their own bubbles online?
Are there bubbles of political news and opinions on the platform? How much of the news and information is shared between these bubbles? We seek to investigate whether the camps argue about the same events in different ways, or have stopped talking about the same events at all.
How much of what spreads is extremist?
With extremist ideologies, both western and home-grown, rampant on the platforms, are they more likely to spread deeper and faster? Who is sharing them? Is the algorithm pushing extremist ideologies?
Do social media and the news tell the same story?
When something happens, the news has certain narratives for it. We check what the same event looks like on Facebook: the same framing, the same blame, or something television never mentioned at all.
data
what we have. We are waiting for research approval from Meta.