Brown: Lack of data making it difficult to assess the impact of social media platforms on society

As hate speech percolates online, social media platforms are facing increasing pressure to limit violent content. But researchers tasked with studying social media and its impact on society are becoming frustrated with the lack of data access from TikTok, X and Meta. 

University of Michigan School of Information doctoral student Megan Brown, an expert on political bias in algorithmic systems, social media and online ecosystems, says experts are in need of this data to better understand how social media is impacting users and their decisions. 

She talks with The New York Times about how researchers need more transparency from tech companies. 

“We’re in desperate need of rigorous, informed research on what the actual impact of platforms are on society, and we can’t do that if we don’t have access to data,” Brown says. “It’s not that there shouldn’t be guardrails placed around researchers, but when those guardrails are placed by the companies themselves, it introduces challenges to what kind of research gets done and by whom.” 

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Read “How Bad Is Antisemitism Online? It’s Increasingly Hard to Know” on The New York Times. 

Learn more about Megan Brown and apply to UMSI’s PhD in Information. 

— Noor Hindi, UMSI public relations specialist