I applaud the @SSRC_org for this initiative, and Facebook for providing their data in a responsible way. Way to leverage current controversies for progressive ends! But... 1/10 ssrc.org/programs/view/…
That said, and along with the lucid comments from @natematias , a few things that come to mind that, as this project develops, I hope the SSRC are thinking about: 2/10
Right now this only includes Facebook data. Makes sense, as a start, given their size and impact. But if the @SSRC_org initiative aims to understand "social media’s impact on society," then This must include more platforms than just Facebook. 3/10
The @SSRC_org needs the other major platforms; not just because they matter, but to study the data + activity that move across platforms, which social science research hasn't addressed well. I hope SSRC is inviting other platforms to join this initiative, on the same terms. 4/10
While Facebook promises not to veto any research coming out of this, there are obvious concerns about what Facebook might say isn't viable to begin with. But there's another concern: studying Facebook data doesn't help us study what isn't data... 5/10
That includes the practices of users, beliefs of engineers, aims of advertisers, tactics of propagandists. Much of this can be (is) studied w/o Facebook's help. But not all. What's missed if we study FB through its data, but w/o studying its engineers? 6/10
Studying "social media’s impact on society" by studying Facebook's data also overlooks what has been removed from that data. Facebook is constantly moderating content: deleting posts and photos, suspending users, deleting groups... 7/10
All platforms moderate, all the time. Everything moderated away is a shadow to the data that remains: a layer of participation that happens but cannot be studied. We also miss what users never post, thinking it'd be against Facebook's rules, or too risky, or too private. 8/10
So, how will @SSRC_org researchers study the impact not of Facebook, but of Facebook's design choices, business model, user policies? Facebook has always been cautious revealing how they do things and why. Giving over their data doesn't change that. 9/10
The impact of Facebook, and other social media platforms, is not entirely legible from the data they've collected. It's also in the machinations, political and algorithmic, of these intermediaries. We must study this too. (All said with respect to the @SSRC_org initiative.) 10/10
