Facebook studied how it polarizes users, then ignored the research

• “Our algorithms exploit the human brain's attraction to divisiveness.” • “64% of all extremist group joins are due to our recommendation tools” • GOP operative turned Facebook policy VP Joel Kaplan, who threw a party for Brett Kavanaugh upon his Supreme Court confirmation, killed any action on Facebook's internal findings, reports WSJ Mark Zuckerberg and other top executives at Facebook shelved damning internal research into the social media platform's polarizing effect, which hampered efforts to apply its conclusions to products and minimize harm, reported the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. Facebook's own internal research discovered that most people who join extremist groups did so as a...