Even for researchers who provide validation, “there’s no guarantee that the data is good,” he said. DSA40 Cooperation46 A German initiative following the DSA implementation. API data is often difficult to reproduce by a peer, so a researcher’s work cannot be checked for errors, which Iamnitchi said is a “fundamental requirement of science.”
DSA40 data it shows that 20 out of 46 tracked applications were approved and 14 were rejected. But approval rates vary widely: TikTok approved 11 out of 13 applications, while X rejected 11 out of 23 applications. The true rejection rate is likely higher because the tracker relies on voluntary reporting, Seiling said.
“There is no structured preference for researchers to use this pathway,” Seiling said. “Access to data as currently constructed tends to discourage researchers.”
A TikTok spokesperson told WIRED that the company has given more than 1,500 research groups access to its tools, approved 130 applications in the EU in the second half of last year, and a daily quota of 1,000 API requests allows researchers to access up to 100,000 videos and comments or up to 2 million viewers per day. TikTok said it considers its research tools compliant with the DSA, but would “welcome more public guidance.”
A Meta spokesperson said CrowdTangle covers only a portion of the company’s public data, while its replacement Meta Content Library and API are “the most comprehensive research tools to date.” They cover Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp Channels and Threads with “robust privacy protections” and are open to qualified non-profit researchers, including journalists.
There are few solutions. Iamnitchi and Allen said they scrapped across platforms, a time-consuming process that exports website data to spreadsheets. Even with sophisticated tools, scraping “isn’t very comprehensive,” Allen said. It cannot capture an account’s complete follower list, making it difficult to map coordinated disinformation networks.
One way to challenge a rejected request is to sue the platforms. Allen said DRI and the Civil Rights Society applied for access to X’s API in April 2024 to study political discourse ahead of Germany’s federal election. X denied the request in November and sued DRI in February 2025.
