Enabling Data-Driven Research for Evidence-Based Interventions

Abstract

Between October 2024 and January 2025 Ofcom called for evidence on Researchers’ access to information from regulated online services. Our submission from the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge is reproduced in this publication. Data access depends on platforms’ policies. While platforms once provided open APIs and/or data access programmes for researchers, most of these options are no longer available. This makes reliable and verifiable research into online safety matters practically impossible. This publication argues that a new framework must redress this imbalance in the name of public interest research and evidence-based policymaking.