Tesla CEO Elon Musk promised to increase transparency on Twitter, but it seems his actions are moving in the opposite direction. His recent moves have made the platform more opaque for academics and researchers who have used Twitter's data for years to study social media's impact on society and into human psychology. Before Musk took over, Twitter had actively helped researchers obtain data that helped them study how information flowed around the network, how social media shapes people's views, how it can be used to manipulate, and even how it affects people's mental health.
However, after Musk took over, researchers from various backgrounds, including psychology, computer science, and network research, have reported being cut off. Musk has demanded that they either delete data they've already obtained or start paying him $42,000 a month. This move has impeded the researchers who rely on tools called APIs to collect a large amount of data on what messages and topics are being discussed, who is sending particular kinds of tweets, who is receiving them, and who is retweeting them. This data is useful for understanding how misinformation spreads online, and it also informs research on topics like political polarization, the psychological impact of the Covid lockdowns, and public attitudes towards climate change.
Musk has previously claimed that he believes in transparency's power to promote trust and has even made Twitter's algorithm public and released the Twitter Files, which were internal documents that revealed political bias in Twitter's fact-checking system. However, his recent actions contradict those promises. In light of the influx of automated accounts known as bots, Musk promised to fight them before he took over, but he's now impeding researchers who first discovered the impact of bots. Researchers and journalists have been using a bot-tracking tool called Botometer, which was even cited by Musk, but its existence is threatened by Musk's policies.
One of the Botometer's creators said that Musk's change in policy affects other tools developed at the Observatory on Social Media as well. For example, "Hoaxy" tracks the spread of information and misinformation, and "Top FIBers" flags the most prolific spreaders of low-quality information. Harvard professor David Lazer, who studies social media's impact, has relied on Twitter data in his research. However, many of the APIs he has been relying on have been cut off or threatened to be cut off since Musk's takeover. Lazer said that if Twitter does everything it has publicly asserted, their entire research infrastructure on Twitter will be shut down.
Research on social media is particularly crucial now, especially as AI will introduce deceptive tactics into the information ecosystem. Social media's influence on mainstream media means these problems will also affect individuals who don't use Twitter or Facebook. The widespread prevalence of misinformation and polarization is something scientists can help us understand if they have access to the data. But this can only happen if Musk and other CEOs of social media companies make their data available.