What is social media doing to democracy? We still don't know.
There is a fundamental disconnect between what happens on social media and what academics, independent researchers and regulators understand about these platforms.
Originally published in “Tech Policy Press” on March 19, 2025.
It’s hard to remember a world without social media. From the United States to Brazil, people now spend hours on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube each day, and these platforms have become embedded in everything from how we talk to friends and family to how we elect our national leaders.
But one thing is clear: despite researchers’ efforts to decipher social media’s impact, if any, on countries’ democratic institutions, no one still has a clear understanding of how these global platforms work. What’s worse — we have less awareness about what happens on these platforms in 2025 than we did five years ago.
This is a problem.
It’s a problem for those who believe these tech companies censor people’s voices online. It’s a problem for those who believe these firms do not do enough to police their platforms for harmful content. And it’s a problem for democratic countries whose political systems are fracturing under increased polarization — some of which is amplified via social media.
In 2025, there is a fundamental disconnect between what happens on social media and what academics, independent researchers and regulators understand about these platforms.
That has led to a democratic deficit. No one can quantify the effect, if any, of these platforms’ impact on public discourse. It has also led to a policymaking void. Lawmakers worldwide don’t know what steps are needed via potential new legislation, voluntary standards or the doubling down on existing efforts to reduce online harm on social media while upholding individuals’ right to free speech.
In short, we just don’t know enough about social media’s impact on society.
Without quantifiable evidence of harm (or lack of it) — driven by independent outside access to platform data, or the ability for people to research the inner workings of these social media giants — there is no way to make effective online safety legislation, uphold people’s freedom of expression, and hold companies to account when, inevitably, things go wrong.
And yet, there is a way forward. One that relies on the protection of people’s privacy and free speech. One that limits government access to people’s social media posts. And one that gives outside researchers the ability to kick the tires on how these platforms operate by granting them access to public data in ways that improves society’s understanding of these social media giants.
To meet this need, Columbia World Projects at Columbia University and the Hertie School’s Centre for Digital Governance have been running workshops with one aim in mind: How to build on emerging online safety regimes worldwide — some of which allow, or will soon allow, for such mandatory data access from the platforms to outside groups — to fill this democratic deficit.
With support from the Knight Foundation, that has involved bringing together groups of academic and civil society researchers, data infrastructure providers and national regulators for regular meetings to hash out what public and private funding is required to turn such data access from theory into reality.
The initial work has focused on the European Union’s Digital Services Act, which includes specific mandatory requirements for outsiders to delve into platform data.
But as other countries bring online similar data access regimes, the hope is to provide a route for others to follow that will build greater capacity for researchers to conduct this much-needed work; support regulators in navigating the inherent difficulties in opening up such platforms’ public data to outsiders; and ensure that people’s social media data is protected and secured, at all cost, from harm and surveillance.
Read the full "Tech Policy Press" article here.
Mark Scott is a senior research fellow at the Hertie School’s Centre for Digital Governance in Berlin, Germany. Columbia World Projects and the Centre for Digital Governance launched Digital Governance for Democratic Renewal in September 2023.
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