[Air-L] Platform Data Access Report

[Tromble, Rebekah]

Dear colleagues,

Earlier today the European Digital Media Observatory's Working Group on
Platform-to-Researcher Data Access published its official report
<https://edmo.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Report-of-the-European-Digital-Media-Observatorys-Working-Group-on-Platform-to-Researcher-Data-Access-2022.pdf>
.

The multi-stakeholder group has been hard at work for the last year. Our
main charge was to draft a Code of Conduct under Article 40 of the GDPR
that would facilitate better access to data for independent researchers.
This report contains that draft Code.

Among other things, the draft Code lays out a framework for assessing the
level of risk involved in accessing and conducting research with different
types of platform data. It then lays out a number of safeguards that can be
put in place to mitigate different levels of risks--helping to promote
research that is ethical and responsible. (I tweeted more about it here
<https://twitter.com/RebekahKTromble/status/1531611984944316419>.)

Getting to this point has entailed tremendously hard work by everyone
involved, and, as the report itself notes, the work is far from over. But
publishing the report and draft Code represent a major step forward. Though
certain requirements are necessarily tied to specifications under the GDPR,
the general principles and proposed solutions the report offers are
instructive well beyond the European context.

Please feel free to circulate widely. And let me know if you have any
questions, thoughts, etc.

Rebekah
Dr. Rebekah Tromble
Director, Institute for Data, Democracy & Politics, George Washington
University |
Associate Professor, School of Media & Public Affairs, George Washington
University |
Visiting Researcher, The Alan Turing Institute (London) |
www.rebekahtromble.net
iddp.gwu.edu