An independent research initiative that Facebook Inc announced in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal is launching its first study, offering scholars access to a petabyte of anonymised user data to understand the role of misinformation in elections.
The data – amounting to 1 million gigabytes – will include almost all public URLs Facebook users globally have clicked on in the past year, including stories third-party fact checkers have deemed false, according to Harvard University political science professor Gary King, who is co-chairman of the effort.