Studies Show Limited Impact of Facebook Algorithms on Polarization During 2020 Election

Facebook and Instagram exhibit political segregation, with conservatives seeing more misinformation.
Altering key parts of the algorithms had little effect on users' political views and polarization.
Users tend to seek out ideologically aligned content, forming echo chambers.
Conservative news ecosystem had more false information according to fact checkers.
Eliminating algorithms decreased time spent on platforms, highlighting their importance to Meta.