Researcher Access to Social Media Data: Lessons from Clinical Trial Data Sharing

96 Pages Posted: 6 Feb 2024 Last revised: 29 May 2024

See all articles by Christopher Morten

Christopher Morten

Columbia Law School

Gabriel Nicholas

New York University School of Law

Salome Viljoen

University of Michigan Law School; Harvard University

Date Written: April 2024

Abstract

For years, social media companies have sparred with lawmakers over how much
independent access to platform data they should provide researchers. Sharing data with
researchers allows the public to better understand the risks and harms associated with social
media, including areas such as misinformation, child safety, and political polarization. Yet
researcher access is controversial. Privacy advocates and companies raise the potential privacy
threats of researchers using such data irresponsibly. In addition, social media companies raise
concerns over trade secrecy: the data these companies hold and the algorithms powered by
that data are secretive sources of competitive advantage. This Article shows that one way to
navigate this difficult strait is by drawing on lessons from the successful governance program
that has emerged to regulate the sharing of clinical trial data. Like social media data, clinical
trial data implicates both individual privacy and trade secrecy concerns. Nonetheless, clinical
trial data’s governance regime was gradually legislated, regulated, and brokered into existence,
managing the interests of industry, academia, and other stakeholders. The result is a
functionally successful (albeit imperfect) clinical trial data-sharing ecosystem. Part II sketches
the status quo of researchers’ access to social media data and provides a novel taxonomy of
the problems that arise under this regime. Part III reviews the legal structures governing
sharing of clinical trial data and traces the history of scandals, investigations, industry protest,
and legislative response that gave rise to the mix of mandated sharing and experimental
programs we have today. Part IV applies lessons from clinical trial data sharing to social media data and charts a strategic course forward. Three primary lessons emerge: first, the benefits of
research on otherwise secret data are cascading and unpredictable; second, law without
institutions to implement the law is insufficient; and, third, data access regimes must be tailored
to the different sorts of data they make available.

Suggested Citation

Morten, Christopher and Nicholas, Gabriel and Viljoen, Salome, Researcher Access to Social Media Data: Lessons from Clinical Trial Data Sharing (April 2024). 38 Berkeley Tech. L.J. 109 (2024), U of Michigan Public Law Research Paper No. 24-017, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4716353 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4716353

Christopher Morten (Contact Author)

Columbia Law School ( email )

435 West 116th St
NEW YORK, NY 10027

HOME PAGE: http://www.law.columbia.edu/faculty/christopher-morten

Gabriel Nicholas

New York University School of Law ( email )

40 Washington Square South
New York, NY NY 10012-1099
United States

Salome Viljoen

University of Michigan Law School ( email )

625 South State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1215
United States

Harvard University ( email )

1875 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
220
Abstract Views
1,008
Rank
284,750
PlumX Metrics