[Air-L] Facebook/Instagram ToS and research

[Locatelli Elisabetta]

Dear all,

I resume a topic already discussed in the list some months ago to have a help about doing research on Facebook/Instagram contents posted by users and platforms’ ToS.
After Cambridge Analytica both platforms restricted access to data.
Facebook new ToS say “You may not access or collect data from our Products using automated means (without our prior permission) or attempt to access data you do not have permission to access.” Instagram ToS say “You can't attempt to create accounts or access or collect information in unauthorized ways. This includes creating accounts or collecting information in an automated way without our express permission.”

So I was wondering if someone can help or maybe suggest literature about:

  *   How much binding are ToS for a researcher?
  *   Do these restrictions regard all kind of methodologies?
  *   If I obtain the permission from a user to analyse his/her profile (i.e. in an ethnographic research project) or I access data that I can access with my own profile (i.e. for ethnographic analysis or for an analysis of public posts on Instagram), in these cases should I have the required permission/authorization or do ToS do refer exclusively to platform’s permission/authorization?
  *   If a I retrieve data using an app that didn’t pass Facebook approval but that it is still working, I suppose these data should not be used, but if I decide to use them which kind of consequences may be? Just ethical ones or also legal ones?

Thank you in advance for your help

Best

Elisabetta



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