News came before the internet, so they state sources, not link them, which they did in the first sentence:
Oct 1 (Reuters) - A growing number of people think social media manipulates and divides people and harms democracy, Pew Research Center said on Thursday
Honestly, it’s kind of a wild claim to be seen in 2026, when, nearly over a decade ago, Facebook was abusing this exact thing and optimizing their social media algorithms specifically to manipulate and divide people because it increased engagement.
And here we are, seemingly having forgotten the past, which is barely even history at this point, and are finding ourselves surprised that the exact thing that was being built has the exact effect that it was being built to create.
Even more astonishing is the number of people in this comment section either arguing against that or refuting it.
No source linked, so that’s just a rumor spread by reuters.
https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2026/10/01/across-the-globe-people-increasingly-say-social-media-is-harming-democracy/
Is the study they are referring to
News came before the internet, so they state sources, not link them, which they did in the first sentence:
Honestly, it’s kind of a wild claim to be seen in 2026, when, nearly over a decade ago, Facebook was abusing this exact thing and optimizing their social media algorithms specifically to manipulate and divide people because it increased engagement.
And here we are, seemingly having forgotten the past, which is barely even history at this point, and are finding ourselves surprised that the exact thing that was being built has the exact effect that it was being built to create.
Even more astonishing is the number of people in this comment section either arguing against that or refuting it.