A Multi-Stakeholder Approach for Leveraging Data Portability to Support Research on the Digital Information Environment

Abstract

In this paper, we aim to situate data portability within the evolving discussions of how to support data access for researchers studying the digital information environment. We explore how data donations, enabled by existing data access rights and data portability requirements, provide promising opportunities for supporting research on critical trust and safety topics. Evaluating other data access mechanisms that are more central to policy debates about platform transparency, we argue that data donations are a powerful additional mechanism that offer key legal, ethical, and scientific benefits. We then assess current challenges with using data donations for research and offer recommendations for various stakeholders to better align portability mechanisms with the needs of research. Taken together, we argue that although portability is often considered within a context of competition and user agency, regulators, industry actors, and researchers should understand and leverage portability’s potential impact to empower critical research on the societal impacts of digital platforms and services.