Is Facebook really that bad?

Dylan, German, and Dara talk about Facebook and the controversy surrounding it in recent weeks. They cover just how much — and how little — we know about Facebook’s impact on the world and talk about whether there are good policy solutions to Facebook’s problems. For the white paper of the week, they break down a study on free school lunch programs. References: The Wall Street Journal’s reporting on how Facebook’s efforts to improve the platform backfired  The Washington Post’s reporting on how Facebook prioritized “angry” over “like” The Washington Post’s reporting on Facebook picking engagement over fighting misinformation Section 230 basics, explained  Vox’s Recode Daily podcast What happened when experimenters paid people to deactivate Facebook before the 2018 midterms Max Fisher and Amanda Taub on Facebook-inspired anti-Muslim violence in Sri Lanka Facebook did enable the Arab Spring Farhad Manjoo on how bad regulations could make Facebook worse A child psychologist on what we don’t know about Instagram’s effect on teen girls  Kevin Drum’s counter-takes on Facebook NBER study on school lunch programs reducing grocery costs Hosts: Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt), senior correspondent, Vox German Lopez (@germanrlopez), senior correspondent, Vox Dara Lind (@dlind), immigration reporter, ProPublica Credits: Sofi LaLonde, producer & engineer Libby Nelson, editorial advisor Amber Hall, deputy editorial director of talk podcasts Sign up for The Weeds newsletter each Friday: vox.com/weedsletter  Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices