Related papers: TikTok's Research API: Problems Without Explanatio…
Article 40(12) of the Digital Services Act (DSA) requires Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) to provide vetted researchers with access to publicly accessible data. While prior work has identified shortcomings of platform-provided data…
TikTok is a social media platform that has gained immense popularity over the last few years, particularly among younger demographics, due to the viral trends and challenges shared worldwide. The recent release of a free Research API opens…
To facilitate accountability and transparency, the Digital Services Act (DSA) sets up a process through which Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) need to grant vetted researchers access to their internal data (Article 40(4)).…
Adolescents spend an increasing amount of their time in digital environments where their still-developing cognitive capacities leave them unable to recognize or resist commercial persuasion. Article 28(2) of the DSA responds to this…
Like other social media, TikTok is embracing its use as a search engine, developing search products to steer users to produce searchable content and engage in content discovery. Their recently developed product search recommendations are…
Recent application programming interface (API) restrictions on major social media platforms challenge compliance with the EU Digital Services Act [20], which mandates data access for algorithmic transparency. We develop a structured audit…
This paper critically audits the search endpoint of YouTube's Data API (v3), a common tool for academic research. Through systematic weekly searches over six months using eleven queries, we identify major limitations regarding completeness,…
The GDPR's Right of Access aims to empower users with control over their personal data via Data Download Packages (DDPs). However, their effectiveness is often compromised by inconsistent platform implementations, questionable data…
Since 2006, Twitter's APIs have been rich sources of data for researchers studying social phenomena such as misinformation, public communication, crisis response, and political behavior. However, in 2023, Twitter began heavily restricting…
Social media platforms are constantly shifting towards algorithmically curated content based on implicit or explicit user feedback. Regulators, as well as researchers, are calling for systematic social media algorithmic audits as this shift…
YouTube is among the most widely-used platforms worldwide, and has seen a lot of recent academic attention. Despite its popularity and the number of studies conducted on it, much less is understood about the way in which YouTube's Data API,…
Mobile applications, particularly those from social media platforms such as WeChat and TikTok, are evolving into "super apps" that offer a wide range of services such as instant messaging and media sharing, e-commerce, e-learning, and…
Research on online coordinated behaviour has predominantly focused on text-based social media platforms. However, the rise of video-first platforms such as TikTok introduces distinct challenges. The multimodal nature of video posts,…
Social media has transformed the advertising landscape, becoming an essential tool for reaching and connecting with consumers. Its sharing and engagement features amplify brand exposure, while its cost-effective options provide businesses…
This paper presents the TikTok 2024 U.S. Presidential Election Dataset, a large-scale, resource designed to advance research into political communication and social media dynamics. The dataset comprises 3.14 million videos published on…
The Digital Services Act (DSA) requires large social media platforms in the EU to provide clear and specific information whenever they remove or restrict access to certain content. These "Statements of Reasons" (SoRs) are collected in the…
TikTok is a major force among social media platforms with over a billion monthly active users worldwide and 170 million in the United States. The platform's status as a key news source, particularly among younger demographics, raises…
Deepfakes have become a growing concern in recent years, prompting researchers to develop benchmark datasets and detection algorithms to tackle the issue. However, existing datasets suffer from significant drawbacks that hamper their…
Opaque algorithms disseminate and mediate the content that users consume on online social media platforms. This algorithmic mediation serves users with contents of their liking, on the other hand, it may cause several inadvertent risks to…
Advanced large language models like ChatGPT have gained considerable attention recently, including among students. However, while the debate on ChatGPT in academia is making waves, more understanding is needed among lecturers and teachers…