European researchers are facing refusals, technical limitations, and complex procedures when trying to access data from major social media platforms under the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA). This was reported by WIRED.

The DSA mandates that very large online platforms provide verified researchers with access to data to study systemic risks. These include the spread of illegal content, misinformation, the influence of recommendation algorithms, threats to elections, and other socially significant risks.

According to WIRED's sources, the issue lies not with the law itself but with its practical implementation. Platforms interpret access criteria differently, require complex data storage infrastructure, impose API limits, or make data incomplete and difficult to reproduce.

TikTok

One key case highlighted by WIRED involves Adriana Yamnitchi, a professor of computational social sciences at Maastricht University. Her team attempted to study political content on TikTok ahead of Romania's presidential elections in 2024.

The researchers aimed to understand how content supporting Călin Georgescu was disseminated and monetized through influencer marketing and live streams. The team applied for access to the research API under the DSA.

According to WIRED, TikTok denied access, citing that the applicants did not prove their researcher status, did not disclose potential commercial interests, and failed to meet security requirements.

Later, TikTok reported that it had identified 116,000 potentially compromised accounts and removed over 27,000 fake pages related to promoting Georgescu and the AUR party.

Yamnitchi believes that timely access to data would have allowed researchers to study earlier who was creating and promoting such content and who was benefiting from it.

Platforms Limit Access Tools

Researchers interviewed by WIRED pointed out several types of barriers:

  • Meta shut down CrowdTangle and replaced it with Meta Content Library;
  • X made API access paid;
  • TikTok limited the number of requests a researcher can send in a day.

A representative from TikTok told WIRED that the company provided access to its tools to over 1,500 research groups and approved 130 applications in the EU in the second half of last year. According to the company, the daily quota of 1,000 API requests allows for up to 100,000 records of videos and comments or up to 2 million records of followers.

Meta stated to the publication that CrowdTangle covered only a portion of the company's public data, while the Meta Content Library and API are the most comprehensive research tools available on the platform, covering Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp Channels, and Threads.

However, independent studies indicate limitations of such tools. In a preprint by Luca Becavace and Simon Meyer, it is stated that the TikTok Research API and Meta Content Library lead to systematic data loss due to narrowed coverage, removal of metadata, and operational constraints.

The authors concluded that in their current form, these APIs are inadequate for independent audits of systemic risks as envisioned by the DSA.

European Commission Increases Pressure

The DSA has already become the basis for complaints against major platforms. In December 2025, the European Commission fined X €120 million, including for barriers to researchers accessing public data.

The regulator noted that the terms of use for the social network prohibited eligible researchers from independently obtaining public data, including scraping, and that the access process created unnecessary hurdles for studying systemic risks in the EU.

On July 16, 2026, the European Commission accepted X's action plan to rectify violations. The company must expedite the review of researchers' applications, provide free access to data, and amend rules that restricted permissible collection of public information.

X has six months to implement the plan. Duncan Allen, a representative of Democracy Reporting International, called this step a move in the right direction but noted that it remains unclear how exactly the platform will change the process for granting researchers access.

In April, the European Commission preliminarily found that TikTok and Meta may have violated 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.

As of October 29, 2025, new rules for accessing non-public data from major platforms are in effect in the EU. Verified researchers can submit applications through a special portal if their projects relate to studying systemic risks.

The Law Is Not Working as Expected

WIRED's sources believe that without full access to data, society receives less verifiable information about how platforms recommend content, handle complaints, and influence political processes.

A separate issue is reproducibility. Even if a researcher gains access to the API, another scholar may not always be able to replicate the extraction and verify the results. Yamnitchi called this a fundamental requirement of science.

According to the DSA40 Collaboratory initiative, which tracks data access requests, out of 46 applications, 20 were approved, and 14 were denied. TikTok approved 11 out of 13 requests, while X denied 11 out of 23. Project coordinator L.K. Sailing warned that the actual refusal rates may be higher, as the database is built on voluntary reports from researchers.

In practice, researchers often revert to scraping—automated collection of public data from websites. However, this method is limited: it does not provide full access to account connections, content dissemination history, and data needed to analyze coordinated campaigns.

It is worth noting that in April 2022, the European Union reached an agreement to adopt the Digital Services Act, which was supported by Google, expressing readiness to participate in the development of the final text.

In May 2024, the EU threatened Microsoft with a fine under the DSA for failing to provide data on the generative AI features of Bing.