Show & Tell | 20. March 2026

Show & Tell – Social Media Data in Research Practice": Data access for research in the Digital Services Act – new opportunities, new challenges

With the Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU is creating a binding legal framework for access to data from large online platforms for scientific research for the first time. However, very specific conditions are envisaged, both thematically and organizationally. For researchers who study digital platforms or plan to collect data in this area in the future, this opens up new opportunities, but also raises new legal, technical, and logistical questions.

In a three-part series, we examine what the DSA means for research access in concrete terms: What data access is planned? For whom does the DSA actually represent an option for accessing social media data? How can researchers submit applications? What challenges do researchers encounter in their initial attempts to obtain social media data via the DSA?

The sessions are aimed at researchers who work with platform data or want to prepare for future data collection, and provide space for questions and discussions. 

The Sessions

In the first session on November 7, 2025, the basics of Article 40 of the Digital Services Act were presented (presentation by Jakob Ohme – "Brave New Data Access World: What the Digital Services Act (DSA) Means for Researcher Access to Digital Platforms").

The second session on January 16, 2026, focused on access to non-public data in accordance with Article 40(4) of the Digital Services Act. (Presentation by Julian Jaursch – "Requests via the EU's DSA Data Access Portal: An Introduction").

The third session on March 20, 2026 (14–15.30 o'clock), will focus on access to public data in accordance with Article 40(12). (Presentation by Dr. Leticia Bode (Georgetown University), Peter Chapman (Knight-Georgetown Institute) – "Better Access: A Framework for Accessing High-Influence Public Platform Data").

You'll find more information about the series here, and register via the following link.

The lecture and discussion series "Show & Tell – Social Media Data in Research Practice" is organized by the working group "Social Media Data in the NFDI," an initiative of Text+ in collaboration with BERD@NFDI, KonsortSWD, and NFDI4Culture as part of the National Research Data Infrastructure.

The three-part series on the DSA is curated and moderated by Katrin Weller, Yannik Peters, and Johannes Gruber (GESIS – Leibniz Institute for Social Sciences). 

If you would like to become part of the NFDI's Social Media Data Working Group, please subscribe to their mailing list. If you are interested in presenting and discussing your project, repository or research project (probably in the coming semesters), please contact us with a short proposal (title, links and a short abstract of three to four lines).

Coordination: p.genet (at) dnb.de