[Air-L] New report on high-influence public platform data

[Leticia Bode]

Dear all,


Today, KGI is launching a report about high-influence public platform data,
an important topic for many on this list.

Online platforms shape what we know, how we connect, and who gets heard.
>From elections and public health to commerce and conflict, they’ve become
the core infrastructure of civic life. Yet as critical conversations unfold
publicly on digital platforms, the ability to study them at scale has
steadily diminished.

While researcher access to public platform data is shrinking, the same data
is being monetized by platforms, advertisers, data brokers, and AI firms.
This imbalance – where companies profit while independent researchers are
left in the dark – undermines transparency, limits free expression, and
weakens oversight.

Our new report Better Access: Data for the Common Good
<https://kgi.georgetown.edu/research-and-commentary/better-access/>,
developed by KGI’s Expert Working Group on Public Platform Data
<https://kgi.georgetown.edu/expert-working-groups/publicly-available-platform-data-expert-working-group/>,
offers a roadmap to advance transparency and accountability in the digital
public sphere.

Better Access puts forward a baseline framework for independent access to
public platform data – the content, data, and information posted to
platforms that anyone can access. But not all public data carries the same
weight. From world leaders’ online statements to an influencer's viral
videos that shape public discourse, Better Access focuses on high-influence
public platform data – the narrow slice of public data with the greatest
impact on civic life due to its reach, source, or role in shaping what
people see online.

The stakes could not be clearer: when independent access to high-influence
public platform data disappears, so does society’s ability to understand
and protect itself.

Read the full report here:
https://kgi.georgetown.edu/research-and-commentary/better-access/

The KGI Team