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How social media platform data access leads to real-world change—documented through groundbreaking research that has shaped policy, protected democracy, and informed the public.
Why Transparency Matters
Platform transparency has demonstrable positive effects across multiple critical areas of society.
Research insights lead to improved moderation practices, increased scrutiny over misinformation, and better enforcement against influence operations.
5 Case Studies
Research directly informs legal actions, discrimination lawsuits, platform regulation efforts, and legislative proposals at local, national, and international levels.
3 Case Studies
Investigative journalism and open-source research uncover foreign interference, disinformation campaigns, and radicalization—driving civic engagement.
5 Case Studies
Transparency initiatives provide empirical data for studying content moderation, advertising, wellbeing, polarization, and manipulation tactics.
4 Case Studies
Evidence of Impact
Each case demonstrates a clear connection between transparency, research, and measurable real-world outcomes.
Independent researchers used the Twitter API to identify coordinated inauthentic behavior supporting Russia, leading to network takedowns.
Twitter partnered with Stanford Internet Observatory and others to remove networks from Mexico, China, Russia, Tanzania, Uganda, and Venezuela.
NYT investigation into algorithmic radicalization led YouTube to update policies on borderline content recommendations.
Stanford Internet Observatory research led to Facebook removing 18 coordinated pages spreading disinformation about Libya.
Research documenting hate speech explosion on Facebook led to the platform taking responsibility and increasing investment in human rights.
InsideAirbnb's scraped data revealed multi-unit hosts, leading to short-term rental regulations in NYC, Paris, Amsterdam, and EU-wide data-sharing laws.
ABC News investigation using CrowdTangle uncovered AI-generated fake personas, contributing to Australian law targeting non-consensual deepfake porn.
ProPublica demonstrated racial discrimination in Facebook's ad targeting, leading to HUD lawsuit and DOJ settlement requiring system changes.
ABC News uncovered Nigerian Facebook pages spreading Russian talking points targeting British voters, becoming front-page news and prompting Meta takedown.
Politifact used CrowdTangle to track and publicly debunk the viral Wayfair child trafficking conspiracy theory.
DFRLab's research led to Starling Lab filing cryptographic evidence of war crimes to the International Criminal Court.
The Lumen database revealed radical EU takedown requirements for Russian state media that had not been publicly announced.
Cloudflare Radar alerts enable human rights organizations to document and fight internet shutdowns worldwide.
NYU's Ad Observatory enabled research on political ad spending, policy enforcement, and foreign disinformation campaigns.
Research analyzing hate speech spread during mob violence and constitutional crisis, providing recommendations for platforms and civil society.
Foundational research showing social media can predict depression onset, informing the US Surgeon General's advisory on youth mental health.
Early foundational research on how social media reinforces group identity and limits meaningful cross-viewpoint discussion.
Featured Case Study
In 2018, researcher Ray Serrato examined about 15,000 Facebook posts from the hardline nationalist Ma Ba Tha group. His analysis showed a 200% increase in interactions within anti-Rohingya content. This research and subsequent reporting drew international attention, eventually leading Facebook to take responsibility for its failure to address hate speech and increase investment in human rights.
Read the Full Analysis →These case studies represent just a fraction of the thousands of examples across platforms. They demonstrate that collaborations between researchers, journalists, policymakers, and platforms lead to real-world impact.
Living Library
A comprehensive collection of academic research, white papers, and analyses that leverage social media platform data to understand how platforms operate and their impact on society.
Platform data has enabled groundbreaking research across diverse topics affecting society.
2,815 papers
Electoral integrity, political campaigns, voting behavior, and democratic processes
2,430 papers
Online communities, social network analysis, group dynamics, and collective behavior
1,844 papers
News consumption, media ecosystems, journalism practices, and information flow
1,816 papers
Public opinion analysis, sentiment tracking, and attitude measurement
1,626 papers
Pandemic response, health misinformation, vaccine discourse, and crisis communication
1,310 papers
Teen social media use, child safety, developmental impacts, and digital literacy
1,156 papers
Recommendation systems, algorithmic curation, filter bubbles, and content ranking
1,134 papers
Bot detection, automated accounts, coordinated inauthentic behavior, and manipulation
854 papers
Ad targeting, political advertising, commercial influence, and marketing analytics
687 papers
Fake news detection, fact-checking, rumor spread, and information integrity
667 papers
Depression, anxiety, social comparison, digital wellbeing, and psychological impacts
636 papers
User privacy, surveillance, data collection practices, and consent
Browse all 34,693 papers organized by platform, theme, year, and citation count. This living collection grows as new research emerges.