Researchers say FB interfering with their tools to study News Feed

Tech giant Facebook has quietly pushed out changes to News Feed that is “interfering” with the browser-based tools used by journalists and researchers, according to a new report.

According to The Markup, Facebook has been adding “junk code to HTML features meant to improve accessibility for visually impaired users”.

The resulting code prevents browsers from automatically collecting data about posts in News Feed, and may also be hindering screen readers used by blind and visually impaired users, citing The Markup, Engadget reported on Tuesday.

The change has affected both The Markup’s Citizen Browser, as well as New York University’s Ad Observer, a browser extension that has helped researchers study political ads and vaccine misinformation.