Boston, MA 09/25/2014 (wallstreetpr) – The Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) users were evidently angry when in summer; the company uncovered its “unethical” psychological experiment by manipulation of users’ feed without permission. But was any law broken? Recently, the law professors of the University of Maryland alleged that the experiment of the social networking portal was illegal.
Facebook Experiment akin OkCupid’s
Comparing the experiment of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) with that of the online dating site OkCupid, the two professors said both these companies have messed with the law by way of their experiments on cost of users’ privacy. OkCupid CEO had disclosed about the “experiment on human beings” at the blog post.
Violation of House Bill 917 in Maryland
The law professors, Leslie Meltzer Henry and James Grimmelmann, gave a letter to the attorney general of Maryland along with the OKCupid blog post. The two alleged that both the companies had trespassed the vicinity of House Bill 917. This is the Maryland state statute, in which the human research subjects are given federal protection, and it applies to all kinds of researches.
The two professors urged to attorney general to askFacebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and OKCupid from conducting their “experimental researches” on the residents of the state. The professors asked for applying this ruler till both these companies walk in line with a “Common Rule,” i.e. the regulations that govern the mechanism of human research working.
According to the Common Rule, two main requirements need to be sufficed by all kinds of researches that are funded federally. First, the human subjects need to give their consent before beginning of the experiment. Second, the individuals involved in research, needed to be vetted by institutional review board.
The Response from Facebook
Talking to Atlantic, Facebook said that the Common Rule requirements, as well as, the Law of Maryland were not applicable to the research which Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) had undertaken. Also, the company said that “hard look” was being given to the internal processes of that experiment, because of people’s anger.
