Facebook Shuts the Gate after the Horse Has Bolted, and Hurts Real Research in the Process
A public response from leading members of the Internet research community.
In reaction to the Cambridge Analytica controversy, Facebook has recently announced a substantial tightening of access restrictions to the Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) of Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms it owns. Other platform providers are likely to follow suit. The APIs are the means through which third parties access data on these platforms, such as when banking, retail, or even dating apps like Tinder access Facebook data to verify the identity of their users.
While these changes may generate some positive publicity for the company and its beleaguered CEO Mark Zuckerberg, they are likely to compound the real problem, further diminishing transparency and opportunities for independent oversight. The net effect of the new API restrictions is to lock out third parties and consolidate Facebook’s position as the main analytics and advertising broker. Contrary to popular belief, these changes are as much about strengthening Facebook’s business model of data control as they are about actually improving data privacy for users.
Collateral Damage
Up to now, thousands of social scientists around the world have also been using API data from Facebook and other social media platforms to study various online communities and to independently and rigorously investigate the impact of such platforms on our media and society. Such research is undertaken in the public interest and is often overseen by the research ethics review boards of universities and/or by national data protection agencies.
Indeed, research ethics have been a consistent concern in the Internet research community for the past two decades already. The leading international community of researchers in the field, the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR), has regularly published detailed, gradually evolving research ethics guidelines since 2002, paying particularly close attention to the ethics of social media research.
As researchers at leading international research organisations, we are deeply concerned about the collateral impacts of the new API access rules implemented by Facebook and other platforms.
An informal call by one of us, Danish researcher Anja Bechmann, to list the published research that has relied on API data from various platforms resulted in an impressive collection of articles within just a few hours, and documents the societal significance and scale of such research; the future of this important work is now at risk. It is this work — in the public interest, independent, and sometimes critical of Facebook and other social media platforms — that is most likely to suffer from API lock-downs. In spite of, and even because of, the recent troubles with data misuse by malevolent third parties, better API access for legitimate data users is urgently necessary.
Providing API Access for Scholarly Research
Facebook has now also announced a new initiative “to help provide independent, credible research about the role of social media in elections, as well as democracy more generally”. This is delivered in partnership with several philanthropic foundations and overseen by a hand-picked group of scholars, mainly from the United States, who will “define the research agenda” and manage a peer-review process for research project proposals. In principle, we welcome this new engagement with researchers — but we suggest that the engagement model Facebook has chosen for this initiative falls well short of what is required, and fails to provide sufficient support for free and independent scientific research. (Note that the freedom of science is recognised as a human right.)
The narrow terms of reference for this initiative (elections and democracy), the requirement to adhere to a research agenda defined by the selection panel, and the selection process itself are inherently excluding a much broader range of research that investigates the impact of Facebook on all aspects of society. Indeed, we have seen the consequences of such selection processes before: in 2013, for example, Twitter selected only six of the more than 1,300 applications for its ‘Twitter Data Grants’ programme. The projects chosen through such processes may well be worthy and important, but they represent only a minuscule subset of all the scholarly research that could and should be conducted, in the public interest, on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
By being so selective about which research they actively support, the platforms exclude the critical voices to which they should be paying keen attention; they also tend to privilege US research over broader international collaboration. This creates an unacceptably imbalanced environment for social media research. Facebook’s new initiative is set up in such a way that it will select projects that address known problems in an area known to be problematic; it is unlikely to provide data access to research that addresses yet-unrecognised problems, or research that deals with issues broader than elections and politics.
We therefore argue that the platform providers — and the research advisors they collaborate with — cannot be allowed to position themselves as the gatekeepers for the research that investigates how their platforms are used. Instead, we need far more transparent data access models that clearly articulate to platform users who may be accessing their data, and for what purposes.
Such data access is crucial because independent, critical, public-interest research that is conducted in university contexts and is overseen by ethics review boards can diagnose emergent problems and suggest possible remedies. Locking out such research doesn’t make the problems go away, but simply hides them from view. Had Facebook and Twitter listened to scholarly concerns about undifferentiated third-party data access, political bots, and ‘fake news’, for instance, they could already have acted on these issues well before the political upheavals of 2016.
Instead, as some of us have argued for some time, if such research is locked out as a result of the coming API change, all that will remain is the shallow, commercially focussed analysis provided by the major market research companies that are strategic partners of or commercially dependent on Facebook and Twitter — this is neither in the interest of the users, nor ultimately good for the platforms themselves. Now more than ever, strong independent research on these platforms is urgently needed: rigorous, ethical research access to platform APIs actually protects users and enhances evidence-based social media literacy.
A Different Approach to Granting API Access
So how should API access be managed to ensure that such independent, critical research in the public interest can be conducted while protecting ordinary users’ privacy? We see four key points here: 1) Straightforward scholarly data access policies; 2) Custom APIs for research purposes; 3) Accept the use of research data repositories; 4) Open and transparent engagement with the research community.
Straightforward Scholarly Data Access Policies
First, social media platforms must provide broad-based data access to scholarly researchers at universities, if those researchers can demonstrate that their work is approved and closely monitored by ethics review boards or national data protection agencies that secure frameworks for compliant research solutions. Platforms, or their intermediaries, cannot pick favourites here: this would almost certainly lead to the exclusion of critical research that points to the problems and not just the benefits of social media. Furthermore, it would create a significant Matthew effect, where only researchers from well-known universities are granted access to API data, because of the legitimisation and PR this would generate for the platform in question.
At a time of heightened concerns about user privacy, substantial API-based access to public communication on these platforms is crucial for scholars precisely because it is only such research that can provide a transparent and independent assessment of the problems that the social media platforms are facing. Unlike the platforms and commercial research companies, universities can be trusted to take an independent perspective and to manage research ethics with great care and nuance: incorrect assessments, overt bias towards the platforms, and unethical engagement with social media data would seriously damage their public standing and destroy future careers.
Custom APIs for Research Purposes
Second, this also requires API-based data access services that are specifically tailored to research rather than commercial uses. At present, most social media platforms insist on providing one undifferentiated API offering for all users, including third-party end-user applications, commercial data analytics companies, and scholarly research. The platforms’ terms of service are typically written with commercial uses in mind, and rarely address use by researchers.
It would be more sensible to provide a dedicated API for research purposes, whose terms of service explicitly require that the research conducted using the data is in the public interest, and for public rather than commercial benefit. This would encourage a focus on the rights of platform users in such research projects, and would in turn provide a strong prohibition against problematic collaborations and data sharing with companies like Cambridge Analytica.
Accept the Use of Research Data Repositories
Third, current API terms of service prevent the sharing and publication of social media data alongside the peer-reviewed scholarly analysis, even in appropriately aggregated and anonymised form and through the safe repositories now available for research data. This is deeply problematic for the cross-checking and replication of research results: much like the platforms themselves, our research, too, becomes a black box whose internal logics cannot be critically examined. This is already a crucial issue for outputs from the internal research teams of the platforms themselves, whose accuracy simply cannot be independently reviewed.
Instead, then, what is necessary is an acknowledgment by the platforms that researchers have a legitimate need to share their data with each other, in a controlled and ethical way, and that the best way to do so is openly and transparently through the carefully controlled data repositories that already serve other academic fields, from genomics to econometrics. Rather than preventing the use of such safe, managed facilities for data sharing through their terms of service, platforms should work with university researchers to determine meaningful, workable approaches to sharing data that protect both the privacy of users and the integrity of the data. We acknowledge Facebook’s new initiative as an important first step on this path — but this must go much further still, and involve the relevant scholarly communities more fully.
Open and Transparent Engagement with the Research Community
Finally, then, this also requires the platforms to engage fully, openly, and transparently with the research community — beyond a lucky few researchers, and especially also beyond the narrow field of computer science that Silicon Valley firms have mainly engaged with. Social media are named so for very good reason, yet the platforms’ history of engaging with publicly funded social science, information, and media and communication studies, and related fields has been patchy to date.
This focus on the technological over social aspects of social media is arguably the root cause of the platforms’ persistent difficulties in understanding and reacting to user concerns, and it needs to be addressed urgently. We are pleased to see some progress on this front in recent announcements and activities — but much more work remains to be done. There are no easy technological remedies to the problems that the platforms are currently experiencing: it is now the task of social science to develop ideas not just for how the platforms might respond but, more importantly, also for how society itself may address these problems.
Time for a Rethink
If the current trend in API policy continues, only two forms of research that draw on ‘big data’ from social media will be available: self-interested, non-public research by the platforms and their commercial partners that is usually not subjected to independent scholarly review on the one hand; and on the other hand, nefarious, big-data social media intelligence and influence operations by unscrupulous actors who have long since learnt how to bypass any API limitations by exploiting technical loopholes and tricking users into weakening their own privacy protections.
In that scenario, the problems with the major social media platforms — including how they are used and abused — will not go away, but the independent, critical, public-interest scholarly research that alerts society to these problems will be severely hampered. To prevent this, we need a considerable reorganisation of the relationships between platforms and academic researchers — if necessary facilitated by relevant legislative and regulatory frameworks.
For better or for worse, social media are now a fundamental part of society: they are how many of us follow the news, socialise, consume entertainment, engage in politics and activism, teach and learn, fall in and out of love, and so much more. Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms may come and go over time, but it is unlikely that social media’s role in society will diminish any time soon.
Only strong, independent, data-enabled scholarly research can help society understand how these platforms are being used for these and other purposes. Such research is necessary both so that we can each make informed choices about our own social media use and the role we want these technologies to play in our everyday personal and professional lives — and it is crucial to how we decide collectively, through our democratic processes, how the platforms should be held to account. The platforms are now not only the principal gateway to social networking, but also to all research into social networking, and that gateway must be kept open for any independent, public-interest researchers around the world, as long as they adhere to the strict ethical standards of scholarly research.
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Signatories (at the time of publication)
Professor Axel Bruns
Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology
President, Association of Internet Researchers
Research Director Anja Bechmann
DATALAB & Fellow at Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, Aarhus University
Co-chair, Association of Internet Researchers’ Ethics Working Group and project, “Internet Research Ethics 3.0”
Professor Jean Burgess
Professor of Digital Media and Director, Digital Media Research Centre
Queensland University of Technology
Professor Andrew Chadwick
Centre for Research in Communication and Culture
Loughborough University
Professor Lynn Schofield Clark
Professor, Chair, and Director, Estlow Center for Journalism and New Media, University of Denver
Affiliate Professor, University of Copenhagen
James H. Quello Professor William H. Dutton
Director of the Quello Center for Media and Information Policy
Michigan State University
Dr. Charles M. Ess
Professor in Media Studies; former Director, Centre for Research in Media Innovation, University of Oslo
Co-chair, Association of Internet Researchers’ Ethics Working Group and project, “Internet Research Ethics 3.0”
Past President, Association of Internet Researchers
Professor Anatoliy Gruzd
Canada Research Chair in Social Media Data Stewardship
Director of Research, Social Media Lab
Associate Professor, Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University, Canada
Professor Susan Halford
Executive Director, Web Science Institute
University of Southampton, UK
Dr. Alfred Hermida
Associate Professor and Director, School of Journalism, University of British Columbia
Co-founder, The Conversation Canada
Professor Jeanette Hofmann
Berlin Social Science Center
Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society
Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society
Professor Phil Howard
Director, Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University
UIC Distinguished Professor Steve Jones
Professor of Communication, University of Illinois at Chicago
Co-Founder, Association of Internet Researchers
Professor Christian Katzenbach
Senior Researcher, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, Berlin
Interim Professor, Institute for Media and Communication Studies, Freie Universität Berlin
Assistant Professor Hai Liang
School of Journalism and Communication
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Dr. Seth C. Lewis
Shirley Papé Chair in Emerging Media, School of Journalism and Communication
University of Oregon
Associate Professor Winson Peng
Chair, Computational Interest Group, International Communication Association
Michigan State University
Dr. Cornelius Puschmann
Senior Researcher
Hans-Bredow-Institute for Media Research
Professor Jack Qiu
School of Journalism and Communication
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Dr. Kelly Quinn
Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago
Treasurer, Association of Internet Researchers
Professor Richard Rogers
Digital Methods Initiative, University of Amsterdam
Academic Director, Netherlands Research School for Media Studies
Associate Professor Luca Rossi
Data Science & Society Lab, IT University of Copenhagen
Professor Adrienne Russell
Mary Laird Wood Professor
Department of Communication, University of Washington
Professor Jennifer Stromer-Galley
Professor and Director, Center for Computational and Data Sciences, Syracuse University
Past President, Association of Internet Researchers
Professor José van Dijck
Distinguished University Professor
Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Dr. Katrin Weller
Senior Researcher, Computational Social Science Department
GESIS — Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences
Professor Oscar Westlund
Oslo Metropolitan University, Volda University College, University of Gothenburg
Editor-in-Chief, Digital Journalism
Professor Jonathan J.H. Zhu
Chair Professor of Computational Social Science
Director of Centre for the Communication Research, City University of Hong Kong
Professor Michael Zimmer
Associate Professor and Director, Center for Information Policy Research, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Co-chair, Association of Internet Researchers’ Ethics Working Group and project, “Internet Research Ethics 3.0”
Additional Signatories (after publication)
Jingwen Zhang
University of California, Davis
Wouter van Atteveldt
Associate Professor, Communication Science, VU University Amsterdam; Chair, ICA Computational Methods Interest Group
Annie Waldherr
Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, University of Münster
Daniel Maier
Freie Universität Berlin
Dr. Xinzhi Zhang
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Journalism, Hong Kong Baptist University
Daniela Stoltenberg
University of Münster, Germany
Prof. Dr. Barbara Pfetsch
Freie Universität Berlin
Christian Baden
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Mark A. Poepsel
Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville
Dr Scott A Eldridge II
Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen; Associate Editor, Digital Journalism
Stine Lomborg
University of Copenhagen
Turo Uskali
Department of Language and Communication Studies
University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Jozef Michal Mintal
PhD Student and CARWST Research Fellow, Matej Bel University
Prof. Thorsten Quandt
University of Munster
Lewis Mitchell
University of Adelaide
Anette Novak
Senior consultant, former CEO of RISE Interactive institute and Swedish government’s independent media commissioner
Benedikt Fecher
Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society
Prof. Dr. Mike S Schäfer
University of Zurich
Dr. Johannes Breuer
Senior researcher, Data Archive for the Social Sciences, GESIS — Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences
Nicholas John
Department of Communication, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Tama Leaver
Associate Professor and Head of Internet Studies, Curtin University
Katharina Kleinen-von Königslöw
University of Hamburg
Dr. Bente Kalsnes
Oslo Metropolitan University
Henk Huijser
Queensland University of Technology
Martin Hilbert
Prof. of Communication, Computational Communication Research Lab, University of California, Davis
Distinguished Scholar, Kluge Center, Library of Congress
Dr. Thomas Poell
University of Amsterdam
Felix M. Simon
Independent/Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
Dr. Neta Kligler-Vilenchik
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Daghan Irak
MédiaLab Sciences Po Paris
Elliott Bledsoe
Independent communications and social media consultant
Dr Robert E Gutsche Jr
Senior Lecturer in Critical Digital Media Studies, Lancaster University
FABIO GIGLIETTO
Università di Urbino Carlo Bo
Associate Professor An Nguyen
Bournemouth University, UK
Chris Peters
Aalborg University Copenhagen
Javier Ruiz-Soler
PhD European University Institute
Carl-Gustav Lindén
University of Helsinki
Marc Esteve Del Valle
Assistant Professor in Media Studies and Journalism, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Nadia Dresscher-Lambertus
University of Aruba
Bonnie Brennen
Nieman Professor of Journalism, Marquette University
Associate Professor Liza Potts
Michigan State University
Samuel Greene
King’s College London
Tim Hutchings
Durham University, UK
Nico Carpentier
Professor at the Department of Informatics and Media, Uppsala University
Ulrika Hedman
University of Gothenburg
Dr. Stefanie Duguay
Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Studies, Concordia University
Raquel Recuero
Universidade Federal de Pelotas (UFPEL)
Christian Goebel
University of Vienna
Professor Mélanie Millette
Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Laboratoire de communication médiatisée par ordinateur (LabCMO)
Ester Appelgren
Södertörn University, Sweden
Dr. Ysabel Gerrard
Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield
Seth Lewis
University of Oregon
Luca Hammer
Student at University of Paderborn
Anders Olof Larsson
Professor, Kristiania University College, Oslo, Norway
Carsten Schwemmer
University of Bamberg
Bianca Reisdorf, Assistant Professor
Quello Center, Department of Media and Information, Michigan State University
Raymond Serrato
Governance and Innovation Expert, Democracy Reporting International
Elinor Carmi
Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
Professor Victor Pickard
Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennnsylvania
Co-director of the Media, Inequality & Change (MIC) Center
Professor Giovanni Boccia Artieri
University of Urbino Carlo Bo
Dr. Jon Tennant
Open Science MOOC
Associate Professor Jeremy Hunsinger
WIlfrid Laurier University
Jakob Linaa Jensen
Research Director of Social Media, Danish School of Media and Journalism
Eugenia Siapera
Associate Professor, Dublin City University
David Brake
University of Alberta
William Moner
Elon University
Shawn Walker
Assistant Professor of Communication and Social Technologies
School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Arizona State University
Lance Bennett
University of Washington, Seattle USA
Megan Squire
Elon University
Marc Smith
Social Media Research Foundation
Ece Gurleyik
Media Studies grad student
Antonella Napoli
University of Salerno, Italy
Marco Bastos
City, University of London
Matthew Crain
Queens College, CUNY
Andy Turner
Centre for Computational Geography, University of Leeds
Arnim Bleier
GESIS — Leibniz-Institute for the Social Sciences
Anders Fagerjord
University of Oslo
Dr. Mirko Tobias Schäfer
Utrecht Data School, Utrecht University, Netherlands
Professor Göran Bolin
Media and Communication Studies, Södertörn University, Sweden
Rebecca Kern-Stone
Associate Professor of Communication,Manhattan College
Arnt Maasø
Associate professor, University of OSLO
Yu-Chung Cheng
Associate Professor, Department of Mass Communication, Hsuan Chuang University, Taiwan
Aske Kammer
IT University of Copenhagen
Bernhard Rieder
University of Amsterdam
Claus Toft-Nielsen
Associate professor, Aarhus University, Faculty of ARTS, School of Communication and Culture.
Tarcizio Silva
Brazilian Institute of Research and Data Analysis
Marcelo Alves
PhD Candidate UFF, RJ — Brazil
Esther Weltevrede
Assistant Professor of New Media and Digital Culture, University of Amsterdam. Digital Methods Initiative.
Shelley Boulianne
MacEwan University
Anat Ben-David
Open University of Israel
Kjerstin Thorson
Michigan State University
Jan-Hinrik Schmidt
Hans-Bredow-Institute for Media Research
Natasha Bachini
PhD candidate for the Sociology Postgraduate Programme at the Institute of Social and Political Studies of Rio de Janeiro State University (IESP-UERJ).
Boullier Dominique
EPFL
Brian Keegan
University of Colorado Boulder
Roberta Bracciale
University of Pisa, Italy
Kevin Wagner
Florida Atlantic University
Professor Michael Karlsson
Karlstad University, Sweden
Nick Anstead
London School of Economics
Daniel Gayo-Avello
University of Oviedo
Professor Steen Steensen
Head of department, Department of Journalism an Media Studies, Oslo Metropolitan University
Gerret von Nordheim
TU Dortmund University
Professor Paul Dourish
Chancellor’s Professor of Informatics and Associate Dean for Research in Information and Computer Sciences, University of California, Irvine, USA
Dr. Jenna Jacobson
Ryerson University
Dr. Andrew Iliadis
Assistant Professor, Department of Media Studies and Production, Lew Klein College of Media and Communication, Temple University
Fadlan Khaerul Anam
Department of Sociology, University of Indonesia
Eli Skogerbø
University of Oslo
Professor Kath Albury
Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
Pieter Verdegem
University of Westminster
Harald Hornmoen
Oslo Metropolitan University
Marloes Geboers
Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences
Donna Smith
Professor, Ted Rogers School of Retail Management, Ryerson University
Dr. Stina Bengtsson
Media and Communication Studies, Södertörn University
Glen Fuller
University of Canberra
Ioana Literat
Assistant Professor of Communication, Media & Learning Technologies Design, Teachers College, Columbia University
Associate Professor Mark Gibson
Monash University
Natalie Hendry
Deakin University
Michael Stevenson
University of Amsterdam
Mark Pesce
Honorary Associate, Digital Cultures Program, University of Sydney
Dr Jennifer Hagedorn
UNSW
Ehsan Dehghan
Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology
Brenda Moon
Queensland University of Technology
Sriram Mohan
University of Michigan
Professor Cornel Sandvoss
University of Huddersfield
Dr Einar Thorsen
Head of Research for the School of Journalism, English and Communication
Bournemouth University
Tim P. Vos
Chair and Associate Professor of Journalism Studies
University of Missouri
Katy Pearce
University of Washington
Petter Bae Brandtzaeg
SINTEF
Rich Ling
Nanyang Technological University
Francesco Bailo
The University of Sydney
Prof. Dr. Ulrike Klinger
FU Berlin
Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society, Berlin
Nicolas Suzor
Queensland University of Technology
Dr. Marko Bachl
University of Hohenheim, Department of Communication
Frederic Guerrero-Solé
University Pompeu Fabra of Barcelona
Anne Kaun
Associate Professor in Media and Communication Studies
Södertörn University, Sweden
Brady Robards
Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Monash University, Australia
Daniel Jackson
Bournemouth University
Julius Reimer
Hans Bredow Institute for Media Research, Hamburg
Dr. Christian Nuernbergk
Trier University
Simon Lindgren
Umeå University
Tim Highfield
University of Amsterdam
Michaël Opgenhaffen
University of Leuven
Kasper Welbers
VU University Amsterdam
Stefano Doronzo
University of Milan
Alex Gekker
University of Amsterdam
Jason Gainous
University of Louisville
Jeff Hemsley
Syracuse University
David Wagner
German Graduate School of Management and Law (GGS)
Claudia Zucca
University of Exeter
Carlos d’Andréa
Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil
Tobias R. Keller
Department of Communication and Media Research, University of Zurich
Christoph Lutz
Assistant Professor, Nordic Centre for Internet and Society
Graeme Robertson
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Davide Beraldo
University of Amsterdam
Matteo Magnani
InfoLab, Department of Information Technology, Uppsala University
Matteo Gagliolo
Université libre de Bruxelles
Andrew Schrock
Chapman University
Catherine F. Brooks
Associate Professor and Associate Director
School of Information, University of Arizona
Founding Director, Arizona iSchool’s Center for Digital Society and Data Studies
Dr François Nel
University of Central Lancashire
Erik Nisbet
Ohio State University
Andra Siibak
Professor in Media Studies
Institute of Social Studies, University of Tartu
Chip Roberson
CEO — Brandle, Inc.
Niki Cheong
The University of Nottingham
Heather Ford
University of New South Wales
Marcelo Santos
Universidad Finis Terrae (Chile)
Scott Wright
University of Melbourne
Libby Hemphill
University of Michigan
Frances Hodgkins
Doctoral Researcher
Grand Canyon University, AZ USA
Jared M Wright
Purdue University
Elisia Cohen
Professor and Director, Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication
University of Minnesota
James Meese
Lecturer, University of Technology Sydney
Harry Febrian
Universitas Multimedia Nusantara
Kim Osman
Digital Media Research Centre
Queensland University of Technology
Sarah Anne Ganter
SFU
Linards Udris
Senior Researcher, Department of Communication and Media Research
University of Zurich
Suay M. Ozkula
University of Sheffield
Fernando van der Vlist
University of Siegen and University of Amsterdam
Renee Barnes
University of the Sunshine Coast
Edward Hurcombe
Queensland University of Technology
Robert Gorwa
University of Oxford
Sergi Xaudiera
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
Marisa von Bülow
Political Science Institute
University of Brasilia, Brazil
Marius Rohde Johannessen
Associate professor, University college of Southeast Norway
Professor Ulrike Klinger
FU Berlin, Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society, Berlin
Dr. Julia Niemann-Lenz
Hanover University of Music, Drama & Media
Ariadna Matamoros-Fernández
Lecturer in Digital Media at QUT
Professor Sivaldo Pereira da Silva
Centre for Research in Communication, Technology and Politics (CTPol)
Communication College, University of Brasilia
Olga Bogolyubova
Clarkson University
Peter Kerkhof
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Jillana Enteen
Associate Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies; Convener: NUDHL
The Northwestern University Digital Humanities Lab, Northwestern University
Margaret R. Weeks
Institute for Community Research
Catherine Son
PhD Candidate, University of South Australia
Prof Svetlana S. Bodrunova
Head, Center for International Media Research
St.Petersburg University, Russia
Troels Runge
IT University of Copenhagen
Jessa Lingel
University of Pennsylavnia
Dr Jonathon Hutchinson
University of Sydney
Célia Gouveia
ISCTE-IUL
Dr. Andrew Herman
Wilfrid Laurier University
Lukasz Szulc
London School of Economics and Political Science
Sheizaf Rafaeli
Center for Internet Research
Dr. Yaron Ariel
Dept. of Communication, Yezreel Valley College
Aviv Landau
Center for Internet Research, Univ. of Haifa
Amiram Markovich
Center for Internet Research, Univ. of Haifa
Amit Rechavi
Center for Internet Research, Univ. of Haifa
Carmel Kent
The Internet Research Center, Haifa University
יעקב הכט
חוקר עצמאי
Sharon Ringel
Columbia University
Ofer Bar-ziv
Center for Internet Research, Univ. of Haifa
Daphne Raban
Center for Internet Research, Univ. of Haifa
Lydia Jiryes
Center for Internet Research, Univ. of Haifa
Avner Kantor
Center for Internet Research, Univ. of Haifa
Dorit Geifman
The Center for Internet Research, University of Haifa, Israel
Gilad Ravid
Ben Gurion University of the Negev
Frida Elek
Center for Internet Research, Univ. of Haifa
Dr. Nirit Weiss-Blatt
University of Southern California
Tellef S. Raabe
MPhil student, media sociology, University of Cambridge
Aim Sinpeng
Lecturer in Politics, University of Sydney
Dr Emily van der Nagel
Independent researcher
Michael J. Jensen
University of Canberra
Editor, Journal of Information Technology and Politics
Feffer Esther
S.T.C.
Nele Heise
Independent Digital Media and Communication Researcher
Association of Internet Researchers’ Ethics Working Group and project, “Internet Research Ethics 3.0”
ECREA Radio Research Section Young Scholars’ Representative
Benny Bornfeld
Internet Research Center, Haifa
Miller Hadar
Center for Internet Research
Univ. of Haifa
Jeanne Rubner
German Public Broadcasting
Prof. Dr. Klaus Schoemann
Jacobs University Bremen
Jutta Mata
Professor of Health Psychology, University of Mannheim, Germany
Sonja Utz
Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien
Vlad Vasiliu
University of Haifa
Andy Freeman
Lecturer, Creative and Social Technologies, Goldsmiths, University of London
Sapir sela
Student
Wuenscher
Institut für Hochschulforschung (Science Studies)
Nicole B. Ellison
Karl E. Weick Collegiate Professor of Information
School of Information, University of Michigan
Cuihua (Cindy) Shen
University of California, Davis
S. Mechernich
University of Cologne, Germany
Luyue Ma
University of Washington
Dr Damien Spry
Queensland University of Technology; University of Sydney
Dr Chao Sun
University of Sydney
Yehuda Ullmann
Rambam
Weiwei Xu
University of Sydney
Yoram Kalman
Omilab, The Open University of Israel
Raul Ferrer Conill
Karlstad University
Timothy Graham
Australian National University
Professor Ben Light
Associate Dean Research
School of Health and Society, University of Salford, UK
Audrey Courty
Griffith University
Laurie Waller
Technical University of Munich
Lillian McKenzie
Griffith University
Hartmut Wessler
Institute for Media and Communication Studies
University of Mannheim, Germany
Max Grömping
Institute of Political Science, Heidelberg University
Dr. Bartłomiej Łódzki
Section of International Communication, Institute of International Studies
University of Wroclaw
Jeroen de Vos
University of Amsterdam
Alexander Halavais
Arizona State University
Associate Professor Irina Shklovski
Technologies in Practice Research Group
IT University of Copenhagen