Given the central role that private technology platforms play in the dissemination of information, shaping our lives online and, increasingly, offline, understanding the nature of that information is essential to advancing the common good.
Independent researchers, journalists, members of civil society, and the public all rely on access to platform data to understand and expose critical aspects of how information is produced and disseminated. While regulatory regimes – like the EU’s Digital Services Act – increasingly require digital platforms to make some data publicly available, there remains no clear agreement on what specific data should be made available, when, and in what form.
This session will describe a new Framework for High-Influence Public Digital Platform Data, recently developed by a group of experts convened by the Knight-Georgetown Institute (https://kgi.georgetown.edu/expert-working-groups/publicly-available-platform-data-expert-working-group/). The outcome of this work is a framework for the minimum baseline of platform data that should be made publicly available, under what circumstances, from which platforms, and in what format. It focuses on access to public platform data as a means to enable interested parties to understand the relationships between online platforms and individuals, communities, and societies. The new framework seeks to support the emergence of uniform, cross-industry data access expectations that allow for understanding the online information ecosystem as a whole, not in platform-specific silos mediated by highly structured access opportunities.
In addition to describing the new framework, we will focus on how diverse groups can leverage digital platform data – from climate advocates to public health experts. The session will help attendees find common ground through the need for clear access, transparency, and accountability from digital platforms. We see this as a unique bridging opportunity in a time of increasing polarization. We will also workshop with attendees different ways that they could pursue data access in their own work, focusing on specific practical applications.
Brandi Geurkink is the Executive Director of the Coalition for Independent Technology Research, a coalition of more than 500 independent researchers across 51 countries who work together to advance, defend, and sustain the right to ethically study the impacts of technology on society. Prior to the Coalition, she led advocacy campaigns at the Mozilla Foundation. At Mozilla, she created YouTube Regrets, the world’s largest community-driven audit of YouTube’s recommendation algorithm which has won multiple awards. Previously, Brandi also directed a research team and advised on the technology portfolio of Reset Tech, a nonprofit philanthropic organization dedicated to restoring the critical connection between media and democracy. Before working on corporate accountability in the technology sector, Brandi was an organizer and campaigner with the International Civil Society Centre in Berlin and the ONE Campaign in Washington, D.C.
Associate Director with the Knight-Georgetown Institute (KGI)
LK Seiling earned a psychology degree from the University of Mannheim and continued towards master’s degrees in Cognitive Systems (University of Potsdam) and Human Factors (TU Berlin). At the Weizenbaum Institute since 2020, they co-led the Privacy Icons Project, are affiliated to the Digital News Dynamics research group, and now coordinate the DSA40 Data Access Collaboratory. Their research focuses on research engineering, data access, and the societal and scientific risks of digital technologies.
Associate Director and Head of Public Policy at Fundación Maldita.es, a nonprofit fighting for information integrity and against disinformation. I focus on research and advocacy on platform accountability for harmful misinformation. Teaching at UC3M and Sciences Po Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
