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August 23, 2019 04:07 pm

Facebook Said It Would Give Detailed Data To Academics. They're Still Waiting.

An anonymous reader shares a report: In 2018, Facebook announced a partnership to provide data to academics to "help people better understand the broader impact of social media on democracy -- as well as improve our work to protect the integrity of elections." In April of this year, the first batch of winning proposals was announced. "The urgency of this research cannot be overstated," wrote the founders of Social Science One, the entity that operates the program. It describes itself as "an LLC operating on a not-for-profit basis." But as of today, many of the academic teams remain on hold because Facebook has yet to provide key data required to conduct research into sharing patterns of fake and polarized news, Facebook interactions related to the 2018 Italian election, and disinformation campaigns in the recent German election, among other projects. Facebook has also declined to provide some of the data it originally said it would offer, citing privacy concerns. As frustrations mount, researchers and the major foundations that fund their work fear that the ambitious project may not survive, multiple people told BuzzFeed News. A source with knowledge of discussions between the key parties involved in the project said the funders -- which include the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, the Democracy Fund, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Charles Koch Foundation, Omidyar Network, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation -- are now discussing ways to increase the pressure on the social media giant.

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