Researchers Accuse Big Tech of Stonewalling EU Data Mandates

Social media giants are being accused of obstructing European researchers' efforts to study systemic risks, despite legal requirements established by the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA). According to reporting from Ars Technica, researchers claim that Meta, X, and TikTok are treating these mandates as optional by employing obfuscation and restrictive security requirements.

Adriana Iamnitchi, chair of computational social sciences at Maastricht University, detailed a specific instance where TikTok denied her team's October 2025 request for API access. Iamnitchi sought to investigate how hidden influencer marketing and livestreamed content promoted politician Calin Georgescu during Romania's November 2024 presidential vote. TikTok rejected the application, citing failures to prove researcher status or meet security requirements. This occurred despite TikTok later identifying a coordinated network of over 27,000 fake accounts promoting Georgescu and his party, the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR).

Other obstacles include the removal of public tools, such as Meta's CrowdTangle, and X's decision to paywall API data, which Duncan Allen of Democracy Reporting International (DRI) says forces academics to pay hundreds of dollars monthly. Additionally, TikTok imposes daily caps on API requests that Allen argues make large-scale study impossible.

Data from the DSA40 Collaboratory, a German initiative led by coordinator L. K. Seiling, highlights the inconsistency in approvals. Of 46 tracked applications, X rejected 11 of 23, while TikTok approved 11 of 13. Seiling notes that the current setup appears designed to disincentivize researchers. In response, a TikTok spokesperson told WIRED the company has granted access to over 1,500 research teams and approved 130 EU applications in the latter half of last year.