News & Commentary

A look at our top articles, events, and more from the past year.

The European Commission's Digital Services Act is a critical step towards supporting data access for independent research. We submitted comments on this legislation, advocating for structures and mechanisms that would ensure secure and standardized data sharing.

Conducting rigorous research to understand the increasingly fragmented media environment is more important than ever.

From Kamala Harris memes to the nationalization of elections to election denialism, part three of our new series highlights several areas we’re looking at this year.

From generative AI and misinformation, to young voters and TikTok, part one of our new series highlights several areas we’re looking at this year.

The letter, signed by more than 50 organizations and individuals, urges Meta to maintain full functionality of CrowdTangle, a critical tool used to investigate the flow of information on its platforms.

At CSMaP, Allen and Barrie will serve as core faculty members leading research projects on urgent topics related to digital media and democracy.

Two cases before the Supreme Court will address Texas & Florida laws aiming to restrict content moderation on social media. The Court's rulings could also have widespread implications for the government's ability to mandate transparency and data access from platforms.

The widespread reach and accessibility of AI will undoubtedly change the information landscape ahead of global elections in 2024. But rather than letting overblown fears dominate public discourse, we can draw on previous research to better understand and mitigate risks.

A look at our top articles, events, and more from the past year.

Unprecedented research in the context of the 2020 presidential election reveals algorithms are extremely influential in people’s on-platform experiences and there is significant ideological segregation in political news exposure but, among consenting study participants, changes to critical aspects of the algorithms that determine what they saw did not sway political attitudes.

In response to the European Commission's Digital Services Act, we submitted comments highlighting the importance of data access for independent research and suggested standards for data access mechanisms.

While TikTok’s Researcher API is a promising step in the right direction, mandated data requirements are paramount for ensuring that these lines of research continue.

As a leader in applied data science with high-level experience across Twitter, Meta, and Pew, Messing will leverage his strong technical background and deep knowledge of the platforms to expand CSMaP’s research capacity.

A look at our top articles, events, and more from the past year.

Our scholars won Best Article in the Information Technology and Politics Section.

As 2022 candidates embrace Trump's Big Lie, social platforms are reducing election integrity efforts. What should they do to safeguard the midterms?

Ahead of a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on platform transparency, we submitted a letter outlining the type of research questions we want to answer — and the social media data we need to answer them.

A look at our top articles, events, and more from the past year.

Recap of our recent event with academic, policy, and tech experts on how to make social media a safer and more civil place.

Congress should mandate an unprecedented corporate data-sharing program to enable outside, independent researchers to conduct the kinds of analysis on social media platforms that firm insiders routinely perform.

With access to these documents, scholars could support the media, public, and policymakers in identifying where Facebook’s internal research is conclusive, what inferences can be drawn, which topics require more evidence and future research, and what that research should be.

As the Facebook Papers revelations continue, it’s critical for the government, through legislation or regulation, to require social media platforms to be more transparent and open up more data to outside researchers.

The paper’s findings reveal how misinformation spreads across networks and point to need to improve content-moderation techniques.

In 2020, Craig Newmark Philanthropies donated $400,000 to support our PhD students, ensuring they could continue their research projects examining some of the biggest questions at the intersection of social media and democracy. Here is an update on what they've been working on this past year thanks to Craig's generous support.