Seeing the Digital Sphere: The Case for Public Platform Data

A Special Series from Tech Policy Press and the Knight-Georgetown Institute.

Should we be able to understand the risks kids face online? Understand how brands communicate with consumers? How politicians communicate online? These questions – and many more – can only be answered when public platform data is accessible.

Online platforms shape what we know, how we connect, and who gets heard. From elections and health to commerce and conflict, platforms are now an indispensable infrastructure for civic life. All around the world, their influence is vast, and so is the need to understand them.

In this series, Seeing the Digital Sphere: The Case for Public Platform Data, we asked expert contributors to unpack the state of access to public platform data – that is, the content, data, and information posted to online platforms that anyone can access. Why is this data critical for understanding today’s world? Why are researchers and journalists facing increased barriers to access data that all can see? How can we advance reliable access that furthers the public interest?

The answers have profound impacts. From the online statements of national leaders to viral videos and images shared by influencers, data on public platforms shape our discourse. Public platform data offers a window into how information flows, how platforms amplify or suppress it, and what users see, engage with, and share. This knowledge is vital for a range of purposes, from ensuring free expression to enabling accountability.

Despite its importance, there is no shared definition, framework, or approach for using platform data in research. Through this series, readers will confront a paradox. Public platform data has never been more essential – powering the training of frontier generative AI models and underpinning the broader US economy as a range of companies rush to monetize it in an “AI gold rush.” At the same time, platforms have eliminated data access tools that were once widely available – including Meta, Reddit, and X. Researchers have faced threats of litigation for accessing platform data and platforms have taken significant steps to reduce access to independent research.

Over the past year, the Knight-Georgetown Institute (KGI) has convened a group of experts to collaboratively assess existing research and develop a framework to improve access to public platform data. This new framework — Better Access — is a baseline framework for independent access to public platform data.

It establishes a minimum expectation for platforms. Not all platform data carry the same weight; some accounts and content have far more influence than others. The Better Access framework focuses on the subset of public posts, accounts, and interactions that matter most for civic life; the data that reveals who holds influence, what content spreads, and how tech companies amplify, or de-amplify, certain voices.

The framework defines four categories of high-influence data: highly disseminated content, government and political accounts, notable public accounts and business accounts, and promoted content. It details thresholds for these categories in detail. By focusing on this narrower slice of data, the framework advances transparency, privacy, and ethics — lowering, though not eliminating, privacy risks by focusing on accounts and content with clear expectations of publicness and public value, while establishing meaningful expectations for platform access.

But data is only useful if it’s accessible and usable. For that reason, the framework articulates three ways that platforms should enable data access: through a proactive data interface, custom requests from researchers, and independent data collection. Together, these mechanisms advance flexibility, relevance, platform integrity, and accountability across diverse research settings.

The Better Access framework is a step toward more transparent and accountable data practices. This series seeks to build on that work, examining the varied and critical ways public platform data helps us understand the world and how independent access to platform data is under threat, even as AI companies monetize this data at unprecedented scale. Together, the series of articles aims to clarify these dynamics and help to chart a collective path toward better data access.

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Seeing the Digital Sphere: The Case for Public Platform Data is published by Tech Policy Press in partnership with the Knight-Georgetown Institute. The series launched on November 6, 2025, with new essays published daily. Contributors include Brandon Silverman, Dan Arnaudo, George Pearson, Jo Lukito, Kaitlyn Dowling, Leticia Bode, LK Seiling, Mark Scott, Peter Chapman, Rachelle Faust, and Vineet John Samuel.

Check the site for updates; links to the pieces will be placed here as they are published.

The World’s Growing Information Black Box: Inequity in Platform Research - Rachelle Faust and Daniel Arnaudo