The Digital Services Act (DSA) introduced by the European Union in 2022 offers a landmark framework for platform transparency, with Article 40 enabling vetted researchers to access data from major online platforms. Yet significant legal, technical, and organizational barriers still hinder effective research on systemic online risks. This piece outlines the key challenges emerging from the Article 40 process and proposes practical measures to ensure that the DSA fulfills its transparency and accountability goals.
@article{arxiv.2512.14223,
title = {Research Opportunities and Challenges of the EU's Digital Services Act},
author = {Francesco Pierri and Theo Araujo and Sanne Kruikemeier and Philipp Lorenz-Spreen and Mariek M. P. Vanden Abeele and Laura Vandenbosch and Joana Gonçalves-Sa and Przemyslaw A. Grabowicz},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.14223},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
Pre-print version of a published article in Communications of the ACM, please cite accordingly