Markey urges Meta to relaunch research initiative for 2024 election

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) on Wednesday urged Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to enable independent academic researchers to study the impact of its platforms on the 2024 election as it did during the last presidential election.

In a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, the Massachusetts Democrat suggested that the tech giant “appears to have changed its mind on its commitment to transparency.”

Ahead of the 2020 election, Meta launched a partnership with 17 researchers to study Facebook and Instagram’s impact on the election. It did not launch a similar initiative this cycle.

Markey tied Meta's decision not to pursue another research partnership to its decision earlier this year to shut down CrowdTangle, a research tool used to track the dissemination of social media content. The move was widely opposed by researchers and nonprofits.

“With the presidential election just a week away, it may be too late to conduct the exact same type of research as was done under the 2020 initiative, but Meta still has significant data that can shed light on its impact on this election,” Markey wrote in Wednesday’s letter.

“Going forward, I urge Meta to once again lead the industry in transparency and ensure independent researchers have the access necessary to develop a better picture of social media’s impact on our elections, institutions, and democracy,” he added.

A Meta spokesperson noted in a statement that its initiative from 2020 is still ongoing and resulting in academic research.

“Meta’s groundbreaking US 2020 project, in which external researchers were granted a level of access to information and direct collaboration that no other company in this industry has provided, is still ongoing and multiple academic papers haven’t been published yet,” the spokesperson said.

“Meta remains committed to working with the research community in a variety of ways and encourages other social media companies to do the same,” they added.