Platforms and the Right to Information

Time: 9:30 am – 2:45 pm ET

Date: Thursday, May 2, 2024

At a time of growing concern regarding platform power, what kinds of claims can we make to access platform data? How can we ensure that the digital world can be independently knowable and interrogated and that this ability is equitably distributed? If we allow access, how do we protect privacy and confidentiality? How do these questions fit within a broader set of concerns regarding the social and democratic value of data, data colonialism, data justice, and epistemic justice?

Many jurisdictions are starting to address the issue of access to platform data. For example, the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) imposes obligations on “very large online platforms” and “very large online search engines” to share data with researchers and regulators. The proposed US Platform Accountability and Transparency Act (PATA) and Canada’s proposed Online Harms Act would also require access for researchers.

This workshop, cohosted by the Berkman Klein Center’s Institute for Rebooting Social Media and the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society (SRI) at the University of Toronto, brings together a diverse and interdisciplinary group of scholars and practitioners to discuss these initiatives and place them within a broader critical context.

Panel & Speakers:

Data Access and Social Media Research (10:30 am – 11:30 am ET): Is the DSA’s focus on data access enough? How might the right to information need to evolve in order to ensure that the digital world can be independently knowable and interrogated and that this ability is equitably distributed?

• Lisa Austin, University of Toronto, Schwartz Reisman Institute; Institute for Rebooting Social Media
• Swati Srivastava, Purdue University; Institute for Rebooting Social Media
• Gabriel Nicholas, Center for Democracy & Technology; New York University
• Jeff Hall University of Kansas; Institute for Rebooting Social Media