Twitter will share raw data on its content moderation decisions related to misinformation and co-ordinated harmful activity with experts 'studying platform governance issues,' the company announced in a recent blog post. The global group of experts will include academics, civil society members, journalists and NGOs. The move from Twitter comes after several internal studies conducted by Facebook employees on similar themes were recently leaked. The decision was partly motivated by concerns regarding 'the physical safety of our employees around the world tied to potential disclosures,' the company said. The Facebook leaks seem to have triggered a new set of norms around who has access to data generated by social media users. Increased transparency can enhance our understanding of the challenges that platforms face and identify issues for regulatory intervention. What data will Twitter share and with whom? What data will Twitter share? Starting in early 2022, Twitter will share raw data about 'attributed platform manipulation campaigns'. The company defines such behavior as: coordinated activity to artificially influence conversations with fake accounts or automation inauthentic engagement to make accounts or posts seem popular commercial spam Who will have access? A global group of experts from academia, civil society, journalism and NGOs will be given access to this data. Such groups or individuals must have "a proven track record of research on content moderation and integrity topics," the company said. Is there a catch? While members of the consortium will receive more comprehensive access to Twitter data, the company will discontinue its fully-public dataset…
