[Air-L] Ethical problem in a Twitter reaserch

Deen Freelon dfreelon at gmail.com
Mon Dec 18 11:03:24 PST 2017 

Last year, some colleagues and I encountered a similar issue when 
writing up a report about the Black Lives Matter movement's use of 
social media. We realized that requesting permission to discuss tweets 
would introduce unacceptable selection bias into our results, but also 
that quoting tweets without permission would leave participants with no 
means of opting out.

To address this dilemma, we implemented the following three criteria for 
discussing tweets (quoted from p. 86 of the report):

> »» Posting links to tweets rather than reproducing their full text. 
> This allows anyone who
> would like to opt out of this research to do so by deleting their 
> tweets. Reproducing fulltext
> tweets in the report would have eliminated this possibility.
> »» Linking only to tweets that had collected a minimum of 100 retweets 
> by December 2015.
> This makes it less likely that our research will shine an unwanted 
> spotlight on previously
> obscure content.
> »» Linking only to tweets posted by users who had at least 3,000 
> followers or were Twitter-
> verified by December 2015. That follower threshold places users in the 
> top 1% by
> followers. We did this to reduce the likelihood of exposing relatively 
> unknown users to
> unwanted public scrutiny.

Almost two years out, we have received no complaints by any of the users 
whose tweets we linked to.

The full report is available here: 
http://cmsimpact.org/resource/beyond-hashtags-ferguson-blacklivesmatter-online-struggle-offline-justice/

Best, /DEEN


On 12/18/2017 10:48 AM, Aysenur Ataman wrote:
> Hi Lior,
>
> Are you planning on publishing individual tweets verbatim? You mentioned discourse analysis and of course giving some examples of the data is helpful for the reader. However, I’d imagine by having a discussion in your methods section about the hashtag you are working with and stating the reasons why you withdraw from re-purposing those tweets and re-publishing them in another platform, you may still run your analysis.
>
> I work with Instagram photos of children and make sure I include photos with no face in my text. With visual narratives, that’s possible because, thankfully, body posture recognition is not yet on the book. Of course, you cannot blur any words in a tweet or any verbal narrative. I may be wrong to say this but quoting tweets verbatim is problematic not only for minors but for ALL people. What do everyone think?
>
> Ayşenur
>
> ---------------------------------------------------
> Ayşenur Benevento
>
> Ph.D. Candidate in Developmental Psychology
> The Graduate Center, City University of New York
>
> Research Associate with Children’s Environment Research Group<http://cergnyc.org/>
>
> www.aysenurataman.com<http://www.aysenurataman.com>
>
>
>
> On Dec 18, 2017, at 5:48 AM, Stuart Shulman <stuart.shulman at gmail.com<mailto:stuart.shulman at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> The central issue is the absence of any verifiable age data on Twitter.
> With the exception of "verified" accounts, where the verified user has a
> known public birthdate listed somewhere other than Twitter, there is no age
> data. Any account could be underage. No doubt there are minors "passing"
> for adults and the opposite as well.
>
> So, how would we know?
>
> You could go by the Twitter user description, which is a self-assigned
> brief biography that sometimes includes social demographic information
> (ex., high school athlete, states ones age directly, the photograph, etc.)
> but none of that is verified. You could cross-check user by user against
> other public information. For example, my son is @liamcs10 on Twitter. He
> is 15. If you Google his name you can verify he is a minor because he plays
> on a U17 soccer club and his current roster picture is online.
>
> At the level of the ethnographic research, you could do this time-consuming
> forensic work, but it would only work in some cases, not all, and would
> never scale up to the type of research many are doing with Twitter data.
>
> So you have a problem. If you need to assure an IRB or other research
> supervisory board there are no children in your Twitter data: it cannot
> really be done.
>
> Stu
>
> Stu Shulman <https://twitter.com/StuartWShulman>MA Olympic Development
> Program (ODP), Assistant Coach
> Region I ODP, 2005 Boys ID Camp Staff Coach
> NEFC-West 2008 Boys, Head Coach
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Dec 18, 2017 at 5:07 AM, Cormac O'Keeffe <okeeffe.cormac at gmail.com<mailto:okeeffe.cormac at gmail.com>>
> wrote:
>
> That's a really good pint Sonia. Thanks!
>
> On Mon, 18 Dec 2017 at 10:59, Charles M. Ess <c.m.ess at media.uio.no<mailto:c.m.ess at media.uio.no>> wrote:
>
> perfect - thanks for the most helpful clarification, Sonia!
> - c.
>
> On 18/12/17 10:35, Livingstone,S wrote:
> Children cannot legally consent to use of their personal data,
> precisely
> because they are children. Hence in the US COPPA applies, and in Europe
> the
> General Data Protection Regulation., both of which require verifiable
> parental consent for the use of children's personal data. Much depends on
> the legal definition of personal data, of course.
>
> I would also urge a child-rights approach to research ethics. For
> instance, contrary to what many researchers believe, and contrary to
> companies' T&C, in my research children have told me that they consider
> Facebook to be public and Twitter to be privacy (cf Nissenbaum's
> contextual
> integrity).  So my understanding is that this is incorrect below, and
> that
> much social media research is improper....
>
> Best, Sonia
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Air-L [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of
> Charles M. Ess
> Sent: 18 December 2017 08:58
> To: Lior Beserman <liorbeserman at gmail.com<mailto:liorbeserman at gmail.com>>; air-l at listserv.aoir.org<mailto:air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
> Subject: Re: [Air-L] Ethical problem in a Twitter reaserch
>
> Hi,
>
> one fairly standard approach is to go ahead and conduct your research -
> though probably with the additional step of setting up a second database
> that assigns random identifiers to the original accounts / profiles.
>
> Once you have completed your analyses - then the question becomes what
> you need to include as explicit quotes in the publication / dissemination
> phase.  Typically, these are only a few - i.e., in contrast with 10s if
> not
> 100s of thousands (if not more) of texts gathered in.
> Whereas informed consent is impossible for the latter - it is
> considerably more feasible for the former.  So one possibility is to
> contact the writers you want to quote and ask for their permission.
>
> Of course, this will not directly address the question as to whether
> they are minors - and you're exactly right that this is a critical
> ethical
> (and, in many jurisdictions, a legal) issue.
>
> At this point, some will argue that this is not your problem - the
> informants have read (well, at least clicked through) the ToS and that
> such
> posts are by a kind of default public and so don't require anything more
> than acknowledgement (copyright to the author).  If a minor is involved,
> on
> this view, ethical obligations to vulnerable populations are overridden
> by
> a kind of legal coverage ostensibly provided by their agreeing to the
> ToS.
>
> Others - especially from deontological and ethics of care perspectives
> -
> will argue that protection of minors overrides any legal contract
> established in the ToS.  How you directly ascertain the identity of
> someone
> on Twitter while asking for their permission to use their quote is, of
> course, not unproblematic.  But these days, it's harder to be a dog
> unnoticed as a dog on the Internet and so it might be more
> straightforward
> than say 10 or certainly 20 years ago.
>
> My 2 cents - good luck and looking forward to the discussion!
>
> - charles
>
> On 18/12/17 07:46, Lior Beserman wrote:
> Dear  Air-L Community,
>
> I have encountered an ethical problem which I am sure I am not the
> first to encounter and so would appreciate your say on the matter.
> I am doing a discourse analysis on a twitter hashtag and I have no way
> to discern that I am not using under age (under 18) users tweets.
> As there are completely different questions and guidelines to research
> minors from an ethical perspective, I was wondering how other people
> have dealt with this problem in their research?
>
> Thank you,
> Lior Beserman Navon,
>
> Ph.D. Candidate
>
> The Department of Sociology & Anthropology
>
> The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
> _______________________________________________
> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org<mailto:Air-L at listserv.aoir.org> mailing list is provided by the
> Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change
> options or unsubscribe at:
> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>
> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
> http://www.aoir.org/
>
>
> --
> Professor in Media Studies
> Department of Media and Communication
> University of Oslo
> <http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/people/aca/charlees/index.html>
>
> Postboks 1093
> Blindern 0317
> Oslo, Norway
> c.m.ess at media.uio.no<mailto:c.m.ess at media.uio.no>
> _______________________________________________
> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the
> Association
> of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or
> unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>
> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
> http://www.aoir.org/
>
>
> --
> Professor in Media Studies
> Department of Media and Communication
> University of Oslo
> <http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/people/aca/charlees/index.html>
>
> Postboks 1093
> Blindern 0317
> Oslo, Norway
> c.m.ess at media.uio.no<mailto:c.m.ess at media.uio.no>
> _______________________________________________
> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at:
> http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>
> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
> http://www.aoir.org/
>
> --
> Mobile:+33 7 68 59 39 17
> Twitter: ocaoimh
> Skype: c.ocaoimh
> <okeeffe.cormac at gmail.com<mailto:okeeffe.cormac at gmail.com>>
> _______________________________________________
> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org<mailto:Air-L at listserv.aoir.org> mailing list
> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/
> listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org<http://air-l-aoir.org>
>
> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
> http://www.aoir.org/
>
> _______________________________________________
> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org<mailto:Air-L at listserv.aoir.org> mailing list
> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>
> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
> http://www.aoir.org/
>
> _______________________________________________
> The Air-L at listserv.aoir.org mailing list
> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org
> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
>
> Join the Association of Internet Researchers:
> http://www.aoir.org/

-- 
Deen Freelon, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
School of Media and Journalism, UNC-Chapel Hill
http://dfreelon.org | @dfreelon <https://twitter.com/dfreelon> | 
https://github.com/dfreelon

More information about the Air-L mailing list