Better governance needed to improve social media data access for research into online harms

Researchers need better and more reliable access to social media data if they are to independently investigate online harms and scrutinise the platforms that increasingly shape everyday life, according to the final report from the Social Platforms Data Access Taskforce. Established by Smart Data Research UK, the Taskforce brings together independent experts to champion responsible, ethical and secure access to data from a wide range of online social platforms. Its work examines how access to social media data can be improved for public-interest research into online harms. 

The Taskforce’s final report was led by Dr Alexandra Boutopoulou, UKRI Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield, working with Taskforce co-chairs Professor Kate Dommett from the School of Politics, Sociological Studies and International Relations, Professor Amy Orben, a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the University of Cambridge, Mark Scott, senior resident fellow at the Atlantic Council and Dr David Zendle, Director of the Smart Data Donation Service, one of Smart Data Research UK’s six data services. 

Over the past year, the Taskforce has gathered evidence from researchers, regulators, policymakers and civil society organisations to examine the challenges researchers face when trying to access social media data. Its findings show that research into areas such as misinformation, online abuse and children’s online experiences can be constrained by the lack of reliable, lawful and scalable routes to platform data. data at scale. 

Restrictions on third-party access to platform data through APIs, and legal uncertainty around web-scraping for publicly available data have created growing institutional hesitancy, whilst a lack of standardised mechanisms and platform compliance raises further challenges for the donation of individual platform data. 

The report identifies four interconnected barriers to effective data access: financial, technical, legal and institutional and skills & capacity. It argues that tackling these barriers requires a combination of different access mechanisms rather than reliance on a single solution. 

This report comes at an important moment for researcher access in the UK. The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 provides powers to establish a future framework requiring regulated services to provide information for independent research into online safety matters, while Ofcom’s work on researcher access has documented many of the barriers researchers currently encounter.

The Taskforce’s final report sets out recommendations over the short, medium and long term. These call for improved governance and regulation, and encourage funding bodies and the wider research community to standardise approaches, share best practice and pool expertise.

The recommendations include greater clarification and standardisation around data donation, consolidation of legal and regulatory guidance for public interest web-scraping, and the creation of a statutory social media data  intermediary. Taken together, the recommendations set out a path towards a research environment in which access to evidence about social platforms is more reliable, responsible and equitable,  strengthening the capacity for independent research into online harms and enabling greater scrutiny of platforms and their effects. 

With the Government expected to consult on a future researcher-access framework towards the end of 2026, the Social Platforms Data Access Taskforce’s final report offers timely evidence and recommendations to inform the next stage of the UK’s approach to social media data access.

Read the final report.