Opinion

One weird trick to solve political polarization? Nope.

New research on Meta — better known as Facebook — seemed to absolve social media sites from responsibility for the nation’s fractured politics. In fact, the new research offers only one sure conclusion: There is no “one weird trick” to fix political polarization.

Three papers in Science and one in Nature by independent academics arrived this week with conflicting headlines, depending on who was writing them. Meta found the results exonerating — evidence that the behind-the-scenes machinations of its algorithm, which is responsible for what users see, don’t meaningfully divide the electorate. The scientists who wrote the reports, meanwhile, say it’s complicated. The scientists are right.