Agreement on Transparency and Researcher Access, But Will It Matter?

Abstraction: Bipartisan congressional and industry consensus on PATA researcher access to social media data

Key points:

• "Transparency" was mentioned 79 times in a Senate Homeland Security hearing on social media; "trust and safety" mentioned 42 times — indicating strong political salience
• PATA (Platform Accountability and Transparency Act) drafted by Sens. Coons, Klobuchar, Portman would route researcher data access through NSF, enforced by FTC
• Twitter whistleblower Mudge Zatko and former Facebook VP Brian Boland both strongly endorsed PATA; TikTok COO and other platform execs expressed general support
• EU Digital Services Act (DSA) requires largest social media platforms to comply with researcher data requests by summer 2023 and may provide a model for US implementation
• Key concerns center on data protection under GDPR and whether researchers could be compelled to share data with law enforcement
• US may adopt a voluntary White House mandate for platform risk assessments apart from legislation

Connections: Stanford Internet Observatory · Meta · Tiktok · Platform Transparency · Social Media Regulation

Source: https://techpolicy.press/agreement-on-transparency-and-researcher-access-but-will-it-matter/