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Big Tech Accused of Stonewalling European Social Media Researchers (arstechnica.com) 53

Posted by BeauHD from the would-you-look-at-that dept.
European misinformation researchers say TikTok, X, and Meta are obstructing access to platform data required under the EU's Digital Services Act through rejections, restrictive quotas, costly APIs, and burdensome security demands. Although regulators have fined X and pushed platforms to improve access, researchers remain skeptical that the changes will provide reliable, reproducible data at scale. Ars Technica reports: In recent years, social media companies shut down public access tools like Meta's CrowdTangle and replaced them with content libraries, or, like X, paywalled their API data, forcing academics to pay "hundreds of dollars a month," said Duncan Allen, a research officer at Democracy Reporting International (DRI) in Germany. Researchers say that without API access, what Iamnitchi describes as the "black holes" in what society knows about how these platforms recommend content or handle reports regarding sensitive content will only grow. Others, like TikTok, cap how many posts any researcher account can pull each day, which Allen said can make it "impossible to study anything at scale."

The DSA was meant to solve this by allowing vetted researchers at credible institutions to have access to API data if they could show it would help in studying systemic risks, from illegal content to threats to fundamental rights. But two years after the law took effect, researchers say they struggle to meet its security requirements and face narrow interpretations from platforms of what qualifies as a systemic risk. Application forms differ by platform, but most require data to be stored on infrastructure that cannot be compromised -- such as a machine physically disconnected from the Internet -- a resource most universities lack, [said Adriana Iamnitchi, chair of computational social sciences at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, who leads research into online disinformation campaigns.]

Even for researchers who secure approval, "there's no guarantee that the data is good," said L. K. Seiling, coordinator of the DSA40 Collaboratory, a German initiative that tracks 46 DSA applications. API data is often difficult for a colleague to reproduce, so a researcher's work cannot be checked for errors, which Iamnitchi said is a "basic requirement of science." DSA40 data shows that of 46 tracked applications, 20 were approved and 14 rejected. But approval rates vary widely: TikTok approved 11 of 13 applications, while X rejected 11 of 23. The true rejection rate is likely higher because the tracker relies on voluntary reporting, Seiling said. "There's no structured advantage for researchers to use this pathway," Seiling said. "Data access as it's set up right now tries to disincentivize researchers."

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Big Tech Accused of Stonewalling European Social Media Researchers

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  • sue the sh*t out of them (Score:4)

    by doc1623 ( 7109263 ) on Monday July 27, 2026 @12:21PM (#66259098)
    Sue... that's the only thing these mega corps understand and it's the only thing that can be done. A single country can't (or won't as in the U.S.) enforce any laws, whether monopoly, fraud, compliance or whatever ... so lawsuit is the only thing left. Sue for enough to really impact their revenue. Personally, I would be okay if you put them in the red..but that's not likely.

  • I know it's a single data point... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by PubJeezy ( 10299395 ) on Monday July 27, 2026 @01:23PM (#66259202)
    I know it's a single data point but the moment when Twitter started hiding the likes on a post, they were admitting that their metrics were fake and couldn't withstand scrutiny. Of course, the back-end for the platform is still showing that nearly every like/retweet/reply on Twitter is coming from an onlyfans bot.

    Social media platforms are not plausible. All the metrics are fake and they're processing payments, running massive e-commerce platforms and massive ad-fraud campaigns. And the platforms know it. Facebook deletes BILLIONS of fake accounts every year.

    From 2014-2018 the media actually covered media literacy and more and more researchers were pointing out how fake information is spread through super-spreaders and swarms of boosters all being operated in concert. And then that conversation just stopped. The platforms hid their own metrics and researchers' finders were no longer reported in the mainstream media as the click farms started moving from the east Asia to the US.

    Social media cannot be regulated. It is a massive fraud scheme. You can't "clean up" a platforms that only profitable business models require fraud and deception.

  • The DSA has teeth.

    • They would rather pay a fine than have researchers study their data.

      It looks like that they are hiding something big that is more dangerous than the EU revoking their charter.

  • "vetted researchers at credible institutions" (Score:3)

    by ffkom ( 3519199 ) on Monday July 27, 2026 @02:43PM (#66259408)
    The phrase "vetted researchers at credible institutions" rings all kinds of alarm clocks.
    If a government wants transparency about some commercial activity, there are many examples of existing specific reporting or auditing obligations that have been created over centuries. And making data resulting from such reporting/auditing public, via some sort of "freedom of information" act, is also just fine.
    But having some "vetted researchers" appointed who decide what they want to look for and what they want to find sounds like the opposite of a dependable, democratically legitimated setting of rules for commercial operations.

  • "forcing academics to pay "hundreds of dollars a month," said Duncan Allen, a research officer at Democracy Reporting International (DRI) in Germany."

    Meanwhile, also in Germany: 'Inside the Dystopian World of Germany's Free Speech Crackdown' [slashdot.org]:

    "Thousands of Germans have been threatened with fines or prison sentences for social media posts, reports The Telegraph, calling the country's political speech laws "unusually stringent for an EU member state."

  • US companies blocking European witchhunts. Good.

  • If US social media companies want to protect their users and those users' speech from censorious authoritarians, I'm not seeing a downside.

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