EU Researchers Struggle to Access Big Tech Data Despite New Legal Rights
European researchers are facing significant obstacles in their efforts to study social media's potential harms, even as new EU legislation has granted them unprecedented rights to access Big Tech data.
The EU has passed laws designed to give academic researchers greater ability to scrutinize how major technology platforms operate and what effects they may have on society. However, according to researchers interviewed for this report, platforms including TikTok, X, and Meta are still maintaining tight control over who can access their internal data and systems.
The disconnect between legal rights and actual access represents a growing concern for the research community. Without sufficient data, researchers say they cannot adequately investigate claims about social media's impacts on mental health, political polarization, misinformation spread, and other areas of public interest.
The situation highlights ongoing tensions between tech companies and academic researchers over transparency and data access. While regulators have moved to establish researchers' rights in law, enforcement mechanisms and platform cooperation remain limited, leaving many studies stalled or incomplete.
Researchers are calling for clearer pathways to data access and greater accountability from platforms that have so far chosen which researchers gain visibility into their operations.