How to Protect Democracy in the Digital Age

There remains a massive knowledge gap between what happens on social media and what society understands about what happens on these networks. To reduce that gap, civil society researchers and academics have been granted access to data from the likes of Instagram and TikTok under the European Union’s Digital Services Act. This mandatory data access is a world first. The goal is to hold platforms more accountable by evaluating their influence on the information environment.

To meet those aims, societal actors must collaborate in new ways. They must uphold fundamental rights, like protecting social media users’ privacy, as well as coordinate with regulators. This panel will explore existing bottlenecks to such data access that have, so far, limited the ability for researchers to investigate social media’s impact. Panelists will explore new avenues for operationalizing data access that, at its core, can protect democratic institutions via improved accountability for social media giants.

This programme session is supported by Stiftung Mercator. / Dieser Programmpunkt wird durch die Stiftung Mercator unterstützt.