Show & Tell | 28. February 2025
Social media data: Show & Tell - Right-wing extremism and democracy studies (1)

Abstract metal structure
"Low-angle photography of a metal structure" CC0 Creator: Alina Grubnyak
The working group Social Media Data in Research Practice, an initiative of NFDI4Culture together with BERD@NFDI, KonsortSWD and Text+ as part of the National Research Data Infrastructure, has been organising the lecture and discussion series ‘Social Media Data in Research Practice: Show & Tell’ since the beginning of 2022.
This series of one-and-a-half hour Zoom sessions will focus on social media research tools and best practices from selected projects. In addition to pragmatic solutions and technical possibilities (interfaces, repositories, metadata standards, interoperability...), the focus will be on ethical and legal challenges (e.g. privacy and copyright) in the sustainable, secure and critical handling of these data (code and data literacy, FAIR & CARE principles). Last but not least, we invite you to discuss interdisciplinary research approaches and teaching methods that challenge traditional and discipline-specific frameworks and tools.
In 2025 we want to focus on the handling of social media data in research on right-wing extremism and democracy studies.
Christian Donner from BAG 'Gegen Hass im Netz' and Pascal Siegers from DP-R|EX will start the sessions on 28 February at 14:00.
In his presentation ‘Monitoring anti-democratic actors on Telegram’, Christian Donner will report on how the actors of the anti-democratic spectrum on Telegram have been continuously monitored and investigated since 2022, first as part of the research centre of the Federal Working Group ‘Against Hate on the Net’ and now at the IDZ. The presentation will look at the available data, the challenges and limitations, and the access options for external researchers.
Pascal Siegers presents DP-REX as a thematic data portal to facilitate data sharing in the field of racism and right-wing extremism research. One focus of the project is the handling of digital behavioural data by making a German-language corpus for hate speech research (from YouTube) available for re-use. In addition, the community data trust AVERA was established, which enables the shared use of directories for the collection of actor-related data on right-wing extremist online communication.
In addition to the two project presentations, the event will focus on seven overarching questions regarding the handling of social media data and the discussion with the community.
Registration:
Please register for the event here: events.nfdi4culture.de/e/smd
The Zoom link will be sent out one day before the event.
Further event dates in the ‘Social Media Data: Show & Tell’ series:
25 April 2025, 2 p.m.
20 June 2025, 2 p.m.
Coordination:
Vincent Fröhlich (vincent.froehlich@staff.uni-marburg.de)
Philippe Genêt (P.Genet@dnb.de)
If you would like to become part of the Social Media Data Working Group in the NFDI, please subscribe to our mailing list.
Further information on the programme, series and cooperation partners can be found here: https://nfdi4culture.de/de/dienste/details/show-tell-social-media-data-in-research-practice.html