Proportionate data access threshold under the EU Digital Services Act

Determine the threshold of data access that qualifies as “proportionate” under the European Union Digital Services Act while still ensuring accurate results in studies of social media platforms.

Background

The paper discusses severe restrictions in access to social media data and highlights that the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) mandates that platform data access requests by researchers be “proportionate.”

The authors show that small sampled datasets can misrepresent polarization, implying that inadequate access may lead to unreliable research outcomes. They explicitly note that the precise data access threshold needed to ensure accurate results is not clear.

References

Especially in the latter case, this analysis is key since the DSA requires data access requests to be 'proportionate', but it is not clear where this threshold lies to ensure accurate results.

— Sampled Datasets Risk Substantial Bias in the Identification of Political Polarization on Social Media (2406.19867 - Bona et al., 28 Jun 2024) in Section 1 (Introduction)