European researchers are encountering refusals, technical limits, and complex procedures when seeking data from major social networks under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), WIRED reported.
The DSA requires very large online platforms to give vetted researchers access to data to study systemic risks. These include the spread of illegal content, disinformation, the impact of recommendation algorithms, threats to elections, and other issues of public concern.
According to WIRED’s sources, the issue lies not with the law but with its implementation. Platforms interpret access criteria differently, demand complex data-storage infrastructure, impose limits on the API, or provide data that are incomplete and hard to reproduce.
TikTok
One of WIRED’s key cases involves Adriana Iamnitchi, a professor of computational social science at Maastricht University. Her team sought to study political content on TikTok ahead of Romania’s 2024 presidential election.
The researchers wanted to understand how content supporting Călin Georgescu spread and was monetized through covert influencer marketing and live streams. The team applied for access to TikTok’s research API under the DSA.
According to WIRED, TikTok denied access, saying the applicants had not proven their researcher status, had not disclosed possible commercial interests, and had not confirmed compliance with security requirements.
Later, TikTok said it had identified 116,000 potentially compromised accounts and removed more than 27,000 fake pages linked to promoting Georgescu and the AUR party.
Iamnitchi said that with timely data access, researchers could have examined earlier who was creating and promoting such content and who benefited from it.
Platforms are limiting access tools
Researchers interviewed by WIRED pointed to several types of barriers:
- Meta shut down CrowdTangle and replaced it with Meta Content Library;
- X made access to the API paid;
- TikTok limited the number of requests a researcher can submit per day.
A TikTok representative told WIRED the company has given more than 1,500 research groups access to its tools and approved 130 applications in the EU in the second half of last year. According to the company, a daily quota of 1,000 API requests allows up to 100,000 records on videos and comments or up to 2 million records on followers.
Meta told the outlet that CrowdTangle covered only part of the company’s public data, while the Meta Content Library and API are the platform’s most comprehensive research tools. They cover Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp Channels, and Threads.
Independent research, however, points to limitations in these tools. A preprint by Luka Bekavac and Simon Mayer says the TikTok Research API and Meta Content Library result in systematic data loss through narrowed coverage, removal of metadata, and operational constraints.
The authors concluded that in their current form these APIs are not sufficient for independent audits of systemic risks as envisioned by the DSA.
European Commission steps up pressure
The DSA has already been the basis for actions against major platforms. In December 2025, the European Commission fined X €120 million, including for barriers to researchers’ access to public data.
The regulator said the social network’s terms of use barred eligible researchers from independently obtaining public data, including through scraping, and that the access process created unnecessary obstacles to studying systemic risks in the EU.
On July 16, 2026, the European Commission accepted X’s plan to remedy the violations. The company must speed up review of researchers’ applications, provide free access to data, and change rules that restricted permissible collection of public information.
X has six months to carry out the plan. Duncan Allen of Democracy Reporting International called the move a step in the right direction but said it remains unclear how exactly the platform will change the process for admitting researchers.
In April, the European Commission preliminarily found that TikTok and Meta may have breached their obligations to provide researchers with adequate access to public data. The regulator pointed to overly complex procedures and tools that could leave researchers with partial or unreliable data.
Since October 29, 2025, new rules on access to non-public data from large platforms have been in force in the EU. Vetted researchers can apply through a dedicated portal if their projects involve studying systemic risks.
The law isn’t working as intended
Sources told WIRED that without full data access, society receives less verifiable information about how platforms recommend content, process complaints, and influence political processes.
Another problem is reproducibility. Even if one researcher gains API access, another cannot always repeat the export and verify the results. Iamnitchi called this a basic requirement of science.
According to the DSA40 Collaboratory initiative, which tracks data-access requests, of 46 applications, 20 were approved and 14 rejected. TikTok approved 11 of 13 applications, while X rejected 11 of 23. Project coordinator L. K. Seiling warned that actual rejection rates may be higher because the database relies on voluntary reports from researchers.
In practice, researchers often revert to scraping—automated collection of public data from websites. But this method is limited: it does not provide full access to account connections, the history of content dissemination, or data needed to analyze coordinated campaigns.
In April 2022, the European Union reached an agreement on adopting the Digital Services Act. Google supported it at the time and expressed readiness to take part in drafting the final text.
In May 2024, the EU threatened Microsoft with a DSA fine for failing to provide data on Bing’s generative AI features.
