Data Access under the Digital Services Act: Opportunities and Obstacles for International Collaborations between EU and Global Majority

Association of Internet Researchers Conference - AoIR 2026, Mexico

Platform data access is a constant challenge for Internet researchers around the world. Barriers in gathering and analyzing platform data restrict our understanding of societal developments, like mental health, science misinformation and threats to election integrity. This roundtable draws on the expertise of an international and interdisciplinary set of researchers to explore how new platform regulations developed in the European Union can be used to foster global collaboration to work across continents on pressing questions social media platforms and online communities pose to digital societies. The Digital Services Act (DSA) sets up various procedures to allow researchers to apply for platform data. Data access is limited to studying systemic risks within the European Union. However, researchers outside Europe can apply too and data access can “consider wider geographical contexts”, opening up possibilities for non-European researchers to gain data access and collaborate across continents. The roundtable aims to explore the potentials and practicalities of extraterritorial applicability of the DSA’s data access provisions for collaborations between EU and Global Majority researchers: - How can the DSA’s data access rules be used for knowledge creation that transcends European borders and existing structural asymmetries? - Which research questions and approaches can be meaningfully opened to such international collaborations? - How can research collaborations balance compliance with Article 40 data access requirements and equitable participation of researchers from the Global South? - What structural, institutional, or capacity barriers might limit meaningful participation of researchers outside the EU, and how could they be addressed?

Facilitators: LK Seiling (Weizenbaum Institute) Jakob Ohme (Weizenbaum Institute) Ulrike Klinger (University of Amsterdam) Josephine Lukito (University of Southern Denmark) Initial participants: Daniel Angus (Queensland Technical University) Theo Araujo (University of Amsterdam) Marie Santini (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) Clarice Tavares (University of São Paulo) Michelle Torres (University of California, Los Angeles)