As scientists, our findings are only as good as the dataset at our disposal, and with the current misinformation crisis, it is urgent that we have access to real-world data where misinformation is wreaking the most havoc. The current paper highlights 15 opinions from researchers detailing these possibilities and describes research that could hypothetically be conducted if social media data were more readily available. Increased data access would enable researchers to perform studies on a broader scale, allow for improved characterization of misinformation in real-world contexts, and facilitate the testing of interventions to prevent the spread of misinformation. In-lab studies and off-platform investigations can only take us so far. For researchers in the field of misinformation, emphasizing the necessity of establishing better collaborations with social media platforms has become routine. While this can provide useful insights, this approach can have severely limited external validity (though see Munger, 2017 Pennycook et al. Alternatively, scientists have conducted off-platform laboratory research that approximates social media use. Scientists are often left working with partial or biased data and must rush to archive relevant data as soon as it appears on the platforms, before it is suddenly and permanently removed by deplatforming operations.

This is problematic as platforms play a major role in the diffusion and amplification of mis- and disinformation narratives. Social media platforms rarely provide data to misinformation researchers.

Pasquetto (1), Briony Swire-Thompson (2)Īffiliations: (1) School of Information, University of Michigan, USA Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School, USA (2) Network Science Institute, Northeastern University, USA Institute of Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, USA

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