EU Researchers Blocked From Social Media Data Despite Legal Rights

Researchers struggle to access platform data after Romania election interference

When little-known Romanian politician Calin Georgescu surged from single-digit polling to win 23 percent of the vote in November 2024's first round, TikTok accounts that previously posted about fashion suddenly flooded the platform with his content. His posts received 120 million views before election day.

Adriana Iamnitchi, chair of computational social sciences at Maastricht University, wanted to investigate how pro-Georgescu content was monetized through influencer marketing. On October 28, 2024—a month before the first round—her team applied for access to TikTok's API under the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA).

TikTok denied the request, citing failures to prove researcher credentials, explain commercial interests, and meet security requirements. Two months later, TikTok identified 116,000 potentially compromised accounts and removed over 27,000 fake accounts in a coordinated network promoting Georgescu. The first-round results were annulled, and declassified Romanian intelligence later showed Russia allegedly coordinated the online campaign.

Iamnitchi believes her team could have identified who created and profited from the content had they gained access. Instead, the data remained locked behind platform barriers.

Why it matters

The DSA was designed to give vetted researchers access to platform data for studying systemic risks like disinformation campaigns. But two years after taking effect, the law's implementation creates obstacles that prevent academics from investigating how social media shapes elections and public discourse—even when foreign interference is suspected. Without functional researcher access, platforms remain black boxes during critical democratic moments.

Platforms reject most research requests

Of 46 tracked DSA applications monitored by the DSA40 Collaboratory, 20 were approved and 14 rejected. But approval rates vary dramatically: TikTok approved 11 of 13 applications, while X rejected 11 of 23. The true rejection rate is likely higher because tracking relies on voluntary reporting, according to L.K. Seiling, the Collaboratory's coordinator.

Application requirements differ by platform, but most demand data storage on infrastructure that cannot be compromised—such as machines physically disconnected from the internet. Most universities lack these resources, Iamnitchi noted.

Even approved researchers face limitations. TikTok caps API requests at 1,000 per day, which Duncan Allen, a research officer at Democracy Reporting International in Germany, said makes studying anything at scale impossible. When researchers resort to scraping platform data into spreadsheets, they cannot capture complete follower lists—critical for mapping coordinated disinformation networks.

Court battles become the only recourse

Democracy Reporting International sued X twice after the platform rejected API access requests for studying political discourse ahead of German and Hungarian elections. Courts ruled X should have granted access, but one case nearly collapsed when a Berlin court said researchers should have sued in Ireland, where X is based. DRI won on appeal.

"It's cost us a lot of time and energy, and there is an ongoing calculus of whether or not it's worth having these lawsuits every time we apply for data access," Allen said.

In December 2024, the European Commission fined X €120 million ($137 million) partly for creating "unnecessary barriers" to researcher access. X appealed in February 2025, but later agreed to an action plan requiring free data access, faster processing times, and fewer scraping restrictions. The commission gave X six months to implement changes.

Late last year, the commission expanded researcher access to include nonpublic platform data for studying risks including illegal content and recommender systems. Allen said the new provisions could force X to release complete follower lists, giving disinformation researchers clearer views of how coordinated attacks spread.

These details were first reported by WIRED.