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Users angered at Facebook emotion-manipulation study

News that Facebook manipulated users' news feeds to see if it made them feel blue now has some users seeing red.Facebook is seeing backlash after participating in a study that involved the social media giant manipulating content seen by more than 600,000 users for a psychology experiment. WATCH: Facebook admits to manipulating news feedsIn January 2012, Facebook tweaked news feeds to show statuse

News that Facebook manipulated users' news feeds to see if it made them feel blue now has some users seeing red.

Facebook is seeing backlash after participating in a study that involved the social media giant manipulating content seen by more than 600,000 users for a psychology experiment. 

WATCH: Facebook admits to manipulating news feeds

In January 2012, Facebook tweaked news feeds to show statuses that were particularly positive or negative and found that the emotions of others can affect your mood. The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in an article called "Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks." 

Researchers did not inform users that the manipulation of the news feeds would be taking place, however, Facebook's action is legal due to terms laid out in the user agreement when a person signs up for the site.

Adam Kramer, one of the authors of the study, has since taken to his personal Facebook page to apologize for the way the research was described in the paper:

"I can understand why some people have concerns about it, and my coauthors and I are very sorry for the way the paper described the research and any anxiety it caused. In hindsight, the research benefits of the paper may not have justified all of this anxiety."

What do you think of Facebook controlling users' timelines for a study like this? Weigh in in our poll below and tweet us using #OrangeRoom.

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