This week we explore growing tension between the importance of safeguarding user privacy online, and the public and social value that comes from researchers having access to growing volumes of data on social media platforms.
In recent years, researchers have used platform data to shed useful light on a range of issues including mental health, social and cultural dynamics, the evolution of democracy online ... but also, importantly, how the platforms themselves are managing domains like user privacy, content algorithms and content moderation.
In some cases, the inability to access the data safely has either thwarted research or led to unsavoury data access practices.
We look at ways researchers could be granted safe and ethical data access, including legislated transparency requirements.

Links:
Article about researchers accessing Discord user data (404) https://www.404media.co/researchers-scrape-2-billion-discord-messages-and-publish-them-online/

Article about Twitter clamping down researcher access to its API (TechCrunch) https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/14/twitters-restrictive-api-may-leave-researchers-out-in-the-cold/
Article about Meta disabling researcher access to data (The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/6/22613525/facebook-nyu-research-ban-cambridge-analytica-platformer
Statement: Research Cannot Be the Justification for Compromising People’s Privacy (Meta) https://about.fb.com/news/2021/08/research-cannot-be-the-justification-for-compromising-peoples-privacy/
Article about DSA transparency requirements (Tech Policy Press) https://www.techpolicy.press/researcher-access-to-platform-data-and-the-dsa-one-step-forward-three-steps-back/
Report on achieving digital platform transparency in Australia (Reset.Tech Australia) https://au.reset.tech/news/achieving-digital-platform-public-transparency-in-australia/Mozilla research into platforms data access initiatives (Mozilla) https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/blog/new-research-tech-platforms-data-access-initiatives-vary-widely/

Credits:
Editing and post-production by Martin Franklin (East Coast Studio) www.eastcoaststudio.com.au
Music by Bensound.com

#135 Platform probe - Managing tensions around researcher access to data