Earlier this year, Twitter launched the Twitter Moderation Research Consortium (TMRC), a group of experts from across academia, civil society, non-governmental organizations and journalism dedicated to studying Twitter platform governance issues. Previously, TMRC membership was limited to select trusted partners, but Twitter today began offering all scholars the opportunity to apply.
To be admitted to the TMRC, applicants must prove they are affiliated with one of several eligible organizations, have prior experience with “data-driven” analysis, and a specific public interest use case for the data, and use the “industry standard”. systems for protecting their research. Those not eligible include university students, industry and government officials, and groups that planned to share TMRC data with governments or other outside parties.
Twitter notes that successful applicants will be “researchers with a demonstrable history of independent research” or who have met criteria that “demonstrate an ability to trust TMRC data and pursue research for a purpose qualified”.
Once accepted, newly created TMRC members will have access to an archive of Twitter operations data dating back to 2018. Twitter says it will continue to support disclosures of data related to “campaigns of platform’s ongoing manipulation” — specifically content posted in violation of its manipulation and spam policy — and in the future to share data about other policy areas (e.g. tweets that have been tagged as potentially misleading) with all TMRC members.
“By providing academics and researchers with access to specific, detailed data (not just aggregated reports), we enable them to find insights and contextualize information in a way that increases the visibility of the reports themselves,” Yoel Roth, head of security and integration. on Twitter, has written in a blog post. “Our goal is to remain transparent about the activity we identify on Twitter while addressing the significant safety, security, and integrity challenges that come with disclosures of this type.”
To date, the TMRC has operated in a pilot capacity, sharing Twitter data with members, including the Stanford Internet Observatory, about accounts the social network removed related to platform manipulation and state-backed information operations. . In March, Twitter announced it would expand efforts somewhat by providing “targeted” Twitter usage data about the war in Ukraine to researchers for analysis.
While Twitter has pledged to practice greater transparency through projects like the TMRC, critics claim the company has mismanaged and misrepresented its data-sharing policies in the past. In a complaint recently filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Twitter’s former chief security officer, Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, accused the company of misleading the public about its security practices, allowing agents of the Indian government to access internal data and hire employees working on behalf of foreign intelligence agencies, including that of Saudi Arabia.
