Public consultation on access to data from online research platforms

Published on 25 May 2022

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Access to platform data for research: a central issue in a changing world

Recent developments in social networking and online usage are redefining the way we access information.

Search engines, video-sharing platforms and social networks are redefining the way content, particularly information, is consumed and shared.

These sources of innovation have opened up new avenues of expression and accelerated certain forms of citizen participation. However, they can also be subject to misuse and abuse. Among these are the phenomena of information manipulation and online hate.

Today's information environment can no longer be defined by the addition of sectors with hermetic boundaries: audiovisual and digital; traditional media (television, radio, press) and new content consumption services (social networks, applications); historical modes of reception and tomorrow's terminals; national, European and international media. On the contrary, overlaps are becoming increasingly important. They give rise to a redistribution of attention spans devoted to the media and the sources chosen, strengthening the Internet's structuring and growing role in access to information. Internet usage now rivals that of traditional media.

In addition to this role in accessing information, the internet in general, and social networks in particular, are also having an effect on opinion-forming. For example, one of the main features of news feeds on social networks is their strengthening exposure to content that is close or similar to users' known opinions.

Research has a decisive role to play in understanding online usage

In this context, it is crucial that the research community is able to study these new dynamics and develop independent tools and approaches to shed light on them. What is at stake here is our collective knowledge of phenomena whose potential effects on our societies could be deleterious.

The development of a framework for the study of online behavior and its effects should help to protect and strengthen the independence, autonomy and analytical capacity of research, and enable it to play its part in supporting and understanding contemporary societal changes.

We therefore need to reflect on the role that public authorities can play in helping the research community to fully grasp these issues. In particular, this facilitating role needs to be expressed in the exploitation and analysis of data from social networks or online platform services, which condition the development of knowledge specific to digital environments. The challenge of making the best use of this data is twofold: firstly, to perpetuate a dynamic, effective and sustainable research ecosystem, capable of generating knowledge for the benefit of all (scientific production), and secondly, to contribute to the regulator's expertise in its assessment of the schemes implemented by platform operators to meet their obligations, such as the moderation of hateful content (transparency regulation).