A team including RIDLOP researchers Simon Kruschinski and Sebastian Stier has published an analysis of data access for election research under the Digital Services Act (DSA) in Internet Policy Review. The open access article reviews how access to platform data has changed over the past two decades, from the era of open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) through the post-API age to the age of regulated data access. It discusses the DSA provisions relevant for research, including Articles 40(12) and 40(4), as well as alternatives such as web scraping and data donations. The authors identify remaining challenges, from platform-controlled application procedures to uncertainties related to data quality and reproducibility, and formulate requirements for robust and reproducible election research.
Darius, P., Breuer, J., Kruschinski, S., Loecherbach, F., Riedl, J., & Stier, S. (2026). Election research in the age of regulated data access under the EU Digital Services Act. Internet Policy Review, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.14763/2026.1.2080
