[Air-L] : question on data policy for research on extremist social media content

Shulman, Stu stu at texifter.com
Tue Aug 11 04:57:11 PDT 2020 

It is a nearly impossible conundrum. Whether or how we study and report the
worst human depravity and hatred is complicated by a meta-question: what if
the very act of examination and documentation amplifies that which we
study?

I am struggling myself with QAnon content like
this: new(dot)qmap(dot)pub/memes [not rendering a link on purpose]

It is a train wreck for civil discourse, democratic governance, and it is
animated by race-baiting, election interference by a hostile authoritarian
foreign power, and other problematic forms of online speech. It is also
spreading like an ideological pandemic. There is "Q-merch" on Amazon.

When a spate of news articles appeared in the major media recently about
the growth and regulation of QAnon on social platforms, I was both relieved
to see a wider discussion of what I see in the data as truly disturbing,
but also lying awake at night thinking about the free publicity both the
press, other scholars, and my own research may provide.

It is a double bind: sunlight is required for transparency but it also
fosters awareness and sometimes nurtures growth. A decade ago, it was
unclear if University research compliance officers had the digital literacy
to navigate these issues. The political landscape online is so vexing and
adversarial in 2020, do any of us know what is necessary and sufficient to
protect research subjects as well as democratic norms underlying systems of
representative government?

On Tue, Aug 11, 2020 at 5:53 AM Maura Conway <maura.conway at dcu.ie> wrote:

> Hi Catherine (and All),
>
> This is actually a legal issue that's heavily dependent on the jurisdiction
> in which you find yourself. In the EU, probably the most restrictive
> context--or the one in which one needs to be most mindful--is the UK. A
> useful perspective on holding and accessing extremist and terrorist content
> within that jurisdiction is this Universities UK document:
>
> https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/reports/Pages/security-sensitive-research-material-UK-universities-guidance.aspx
> .
>
> The Researcher Resources section of the VOX-Pol website may also be useful,
> esp. if you're interested also in some of the broader ethics issues
> pertaining in this area; see  https://www.voxpol.eu/researcher-resources/.
>
> Best,
> Maura
>
> *Prof. Maura Conway*
> School of Law and Government
> Dublin City University
> Glasnevin
> Dublin 9
> Ireland
>
> Tel. +353 1 700 6472
> E-Mail. maura.conway at dcu.ie
> Skype. galwaygrrl
>
> Twitter: @galwaygrrl
>
> Website: http://doras.dcu.ie/view/people/Conway=3AMaura=3A=3A.html
>
> **********
>
> VOX-Pol Project on Violent Online Political Extremism
>
> Website: http://www.voxpol.eu
>
> Twitter: @VOX_Pol
>
>
> On Mon, 10 Aug 2020 at 20:23, Kolina S Koltai <koltai at utexas.edu> wrote:
>
> > You might find this piece by data & society helpful.
> >
> > https://datasociety.net/library/oxygen-of-amplification/
> >
> > On Mon, Aug 10, 2020 at 12:09 PM Tarleton L. Gillespie <
> tlg28 at cornell.edu>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Not a policy, but this research will be of interest to you:
> > >
> > > Banchik, A. V. (2020). Disappearing acts: Content moderation and
> emergent
> > > practices to preserve at-risk human rights–related content. New Media &
> > > Society.
> > > https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1461444820912724
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On 8/10/20, 3:06 PM, "Air-L on behalf of cbouko" <
> > > air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org on behalf of catherine.bouko at ugent.be>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > >     Hi all,
> > >
> > >     I have often had informal conversations with peers about the
> problem
> > of
> > >     sharing (violent) extremist content extracted from social media
> > > between us,
> > >     insofar as one could be considered as purveyors of extremist
> > > propaganda in
> > >     doing so, even if one shares such data for scientific purposes. I
> > > haven't
> > >     found any policy of that kind on the internet, though. Do you have
> > some
> > >     links to such policies or documents, please?
> > >
> > >     Thanks very much!
> > >
> > >     Wishing you a lovely summer,
> > >
> > >     Catherine
> > >
> > >     --
> > >     Catherine Bouko
> > >
> > >     Ghent University
> > >     Faculty of Arts and Philosophy
> > >     Groot-Brittanniëlaan 45
> > >     9000 Gent
> > >     Belgium
> > >     Bureau: B2.06
> > >     http://research.flw.ugent.be/en/catherine.bouko
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> >
> > --
> > Kolina Koltai, PhD
> > The University of Texas at Austin
> > School of Information
> > kolinakoltai.com
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-- 
Dr. Stuart W. Shulman
Founder and CEO, Texifter

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