Tech companies may have to cough up research data under this bill

Tech companies including YouTube, TikTok and Facebook could be forced to turn over more data to outside researchers under a major bipartisan proposal that was formally introduced last week.

The updated Platform Accountability and Transparency Act would require digital platforms to fork over data for research projects approved by federal agencies – or face the threat of liability. Sens. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) are the lead sponsors.

First unveiled as a discussion draft last December, the bill marks one of the most serious congressional attempts yet to bring light to the inner workings of social media platforms, whose sprawling but often-opaque networks are facing mounting scrutiny over their impact on society.

Under the plan, the National Science Foundation would review and greenlight “qualified” research proposals provided they meet privacy and security safeguards crafted by the Federal Trade Commission. Failure to comply could result in companies losing their liability protections under Section 230 or facing charges of unfair or deceptive trade practices.

The proposal would also create a path for platforms and researchers to receive immunity while sharing user data, which lawmakers hope will ease fears of potential legal blowback. And it would separately require that tech companies regularly disclose to the public data on viral content, their moderation calls and digital advertising.

Coons said the bill will “empower academics and independent researchers to look under the hood and to see what the machinery is that is driving these social media platforms and whether or not they’re genuinely harmful in some way.”

While the thrust of the original draft remains unchanged, lawmakers have tweaked the legislation to widen the pool of researchers eligible, streamline the process for getting it up and running, and expand privacy protections.

Here are the key changes in the new version:

• It allows for researchers working with nonprofit organizations to apply to gain access to company data, in addition to those affiliated with universities.

• It no longer requires the Federal Trade Commission to set up a new office to oversee the research program, granting the agency more leeway over implementation.

• It raises the threshold of monthly users a platform must have to be covered from 25 million to 50 million, which would still catch most major social networks.

• It expands the scope of companies covered to explicitly include “augmented or virtual reality,” which could help future-proof the proposal.

• It sets new privacy limits on what data researchers can request by excluding direct or private messages, biometric data or geolocation data.

Coons, a close ally of President Biden and chair of Senate Judiciary’s privacy and technology subcommittee, said he plans to push to get the bill marked up and moved to the president’s desk next Congress.

Coons described it as a “centrist proposal” that could help policymakers turn “opinions about social media” and its impact on users into “facts” that could prove actionable. Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) are co-sponsors.

In recent years, lawmakers have voiced growing concern that major platforms may exacerbate mental health issues and contribute to political polarization, leading some to push Congress to swiftly step in and set new rules of the road for the internet.

“I respect my colleagues who say, ‘We don’t need to study this endlessly. We need to begin acting.’ I still think we need more information,” Coons said. “To me, that’s not an either-or.”

Coons said having more data could also help lawmakers “secure broad bipartisan support for legislative action,” including for tech bills that have yet to garner “strong enough” backing to pass.

State efforts to regulate social media are increasingly facing legal hurdles, with courts wading into thorny disputes about how to interpret old legal standards in the internet age and apply fresh digital rules.

The Supreme Court is set to take up a pair of high-profile cases over Section 230 and there are ongoing legal challenges to platform regulations in California, Texas and Florida.

“If our courts had more confidence that the legislating we were doing … was well-informed, I would think that we’d have a better chance of resisting court challenges,” Coons said.

Coons cited Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter – which had been seen as an industry leader in sharing data with researchers – as a “cautionary tale” of how a company’s approach to transparency can change without more guardrails in place.

“Twitter was the one platform that was relatively transparent and had made some investments and efforts around guardrails and accountability and some transparency around its metrics,” he said. “All of that has been blown up by the change in ownership.”