RIDLOP

Research Infrastructure for Data from Large Online Platforms

For social science research using data from major online platforms and their impact on society

RIDLOP (Research Infrastructure for Data from Large Online Platforms) is an infrastructure project of GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences. As the first research infrastructure of its kind in Germany and Europe, RIDLOP acquires data from large online platforms, archives them in an archive with secure access, and makes them available for secondary use by researchers. RIDLOP creates the foundation for robust research on the effects of online platforms on society, the economy, and democracy, and strengthens the capacity of policymakers and the public to respond to the digital transformation on an evidence-based foundation.

The Impact of Online Platforms on Digital Society

Digitalization has permeated every aspect of life. Online platforms such as social media, search engines, online marketplaces, and AI chatbots influence how billions of people communicate, shop, interact with one another, and stay informed (including politically). As a result, they have become central hubs for social, political, and economic activities.

Nevertheless, we lack the data to understand how this transformation is affecting our societies. RIDLOP lays the groundwork to change this.

Large Online Platforms

On online platforms, users leave digital traces: clicks, search queries, content, purchase decisions. These data open up research on democracy, social cohesion, health, the economy, and sustainability. Yet access has remained unsystematic, dependent on individual platforms, and limited to fragments of actual use.

Data Acquisition

RIDLOP combines platform-centered and user-centered approaches to data acquisition through three complementary routes: data provided by researchers, data donations, and data provided by platforms. Each route covers different data types, collection methods, and legal frameworks. Together they form a comprehensive, quality-assured data portfolio.

Would you like to collect online platform data or learn more?

Data archiving

For all three approaches, RIDLOP establishes robust procedures for data ingestion and provides a customized infrastructure for data access. This is necessary because data from online platforms is often sensitive, multimodal, and subject to varying legal classifications. RIDLOP builds on GESIS data archive, where sensitive research data has been archived for decades in accordance with internationally recognized quality and security standards.

Would you like to archive online platform data or learn more?

Governance and technology for Data Access

RIDLOP extends the established governance structures and technologies of GESIS for data archiving and access.

At its core is the Trusted Research Environment (TRE), which operationalizes the internationally established Five Safes framework (Safe Data, Safe Projects, Safe People, Safe Settings, Safe Outputs) and combines governance with a Secure Processing Environment.

Researchers access the relevant platform data, assess their quality, and analyze them directly. The data themselves never leave the TRE.

Would you like to analyze online platform data or learn more?

RIDLOP Impact

RIDLOP builds the infrastructure for producing robust evidence on key questions facing society, the economy, and democracy in the digital age. RIDLOP thereby strengthens not only research, but also the capacity of society and the state to understand the effects of online platforms and to respond to technological change with evidence-based action.

Would you like to gain insights for society and policy-making based on online platform data?

Contact us!

Prof. Dr. Katrin Weller

Director of the department Data Services for the Social Sciences +49 (0221) 47694-472

Prof. Dr. Sebastian Stier

Director of the department Computational Social Sciences +49 (0221) 47694-221