Dear colleagues, as a quick follow up - first of all, a tremendous shout out to Rebekah for her work as chair of this project. Bringing together representatives from major platforms, experts in GDPR and related law, NGOs, practicing researchers (and even an ethicist) into sharp and focused dialogue over the year+ leading up to this publication, coupled with the agreements over various aspects and elements of the Code of Conduct, was an all but superhuman task. As someone privileged to participate under Chatham House Rules, I am allowed to say that there was universal and enthusiastic consensus affirming Rebekah's extraordinary work in getting us to this place - a place that one at the outset could reasonably doubt we would ever see. Secondly: the draft Code endorses the AoIR ethics guidelines 3.0 as follows: The research should follow the Ethical Guidelines for Internet Research of the Association of Internet Researchers (as well as any other specialized or sector-based guidelines relevant to the research) and be reviewed and approved before data is requested from a DSO by an institutional, or appropriate third-party, ethical review board, as described in Part II of the Code. (p. 27). In addition, there will be reference to an affiliated document titled "Best practices and reflection questions for the Code of Conduct." The document cross references the 3.0 guidelines with several key issues raised in the draft Code, and is designed to serve as a springboard for further ethical reflection on the part of those developing the sorts of research envisioned and circumscribed therein. This latter document will soon appear on the EDMO website as well along with other documents affiliated with the draft Code. Here I would like to thank especially: aline shakti franzke (University of Duisburg-Essen); Stine Lomborg (Copenhagen University); Elizabeth Buchanan (Marshfield Clinic Research Institute) Rich Ling ( Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters); and Michael Zimmer (Marquette University) for their very great helps in putting this document together. A thousand thanks to Rebekah and the Working Group, and I very much look forward to seeing how all of this unfolds. All best, - charles On 31/05/2022 16:30, Tromble, Rebekah via Air-L wrote:
Dear colleagues,
Earlier today the European Digital Media Observatory's Working Group on Platform-to-Researcher Data Access published its official report <https://edmo.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Report-of-the-European-Digital-Media-Observatorys-Working-Group-on-Platform-to-Researcher-Data-Access-2022.pdf> .
The multi-stakeholder group has been hard at work for the last year. Our main charge was to draft a Code of Conduct under Article 40 of the GDPR that would facilitate better access to data for independent researchers. This report contains that draft Code.
Among other things, the draft Code lays out a framework for assessing the level of risk involved in accessing and conducting research with different types of platform data. It then lays out a number of safeguards that can be put in place to mitigate different levels of risks--helping to promote research that is ethical and responsible. (I tweeted more about it here <https://twitter.com/RebekahKTromble/status/1531611984944316419>.)
Getting to this point has entailed tremendously hard work by everyone involved, and, as the report itself notes, the work is far from over. But publishing the report and draft Code represent a major step forward. Though certain requirements are necessarily tied to specifications under the GDPR, the general principles and proposed solutions the report offers are instructive well beyond the European context.
Please feel free to circulate widely. And let me know if you have any questions, thoughts, etc.
Rebekah Dr. Rebekah Tromble Director, Institute for Data, Democracy & Politics, George Washington University | Associate Professor, School of Media & Public Affairs, George Washington University | Visiting Researcher, The Alan Turing Institute (London) | www.rebekahtromble.net iddp.gwu.edu _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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-- Professor Emeritus University of Oslo <http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/people/aca/charlees/index.html> 3rd edition of Digital Media Ethics now available: <http://politybooks.com/bookdetail/?isbn=9781509533428>