Data Access
Academic Research
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Book
Online Data and the Insurrection
Media and January 6th, 2024
Online data is key to understanding the leadup to the January 6 insurrection, including how and why election fraud conspiracies spread online, how conspiracy groups organized online to participate in the insurrection, and other factors of online life that led to the insurrection. However, there are significant challenges in accessing data for this research. First, platforms restrict which researchers get access to data, as well as what researchers can do with the data they access. Second, this data is ephemeral; that is, once users or the platform remove the data, researchers can no longer access it. These factors affect what research questions can ever be asked and answered.
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Journal Article
Like-Minded Sources On Facebook Are Prevalent But Not Polarizing
Nature, 2023
Many critics raise concerns about the prevalence of ‘echo chambers’ on social media and their potential role in increasing political polarization. However, the lack of available data and the challenges of conducting large-scale field experiments have made it difficult to assess the scope of the problem1,2. Here we present data from 2020 for the entire population of active adult Facebook users in the USA showing that content from ‘like-minded’ sources constitutes the majority of what people see on the platform, although political information and news represent only a small fraction of these exposures. To evaluate a potential response to concerns about the effects of echo chambers, we conducted a multi-wave field experiment on Facebook among 23,377 users for whom we reduced exposure to content from like-minded sources during the 2020 US presidential election by about one-third. We found that the intervention increased their exposure to content from cross-cutting sources and decreased exposure to uncivil language, but had no measurable effects on eight preregistered attitudinal measures such as affective polarization, ideological extremity, candidate evaluations and belief in false claims. These precisely estimated results suggest that although exposure to content from like-minded sources on social media is common, reducing its prevalence during the 2020 US presidential election did not correspondingly reduce polarization in beliefs or attitudes.
News & Commentary
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Policy
Beyond Competition: Designing Data Portability to Support Research on the Digital Information Environment
Although portability is often considered through a competition lens, policymakers and companies should understand its potential impact on policy-relevant research efforts and ensure that portability can support research on the impacts of digital platforms and services.
February 26, 2024
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Policy
Why the Texas and Florida Social Media Cases are Important for Research Transparency
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.
February 23, 2024