LK Seiling

Since Meta and TikTok have been asked to respond individually, achieving such harmonisation seems unlikely—unless both researchers and regulators actively push for it. I have high hopes 😉

Researchers need a BASELINE STANDARD OF PUBLICLY ACCESSIBLE DATA: a minimum set of comparable, high-quality data from all platforms, along with robust quality checks to ensure validity.

2) Burdensome tools
The data access tools provided under Article 40(12) are also inadequate. Both Meta and TikTok reportedly supply incomplete data with questionable accuracy.

Researchers need STANDARDISED APPLICATION FORMS and FAIR, TRANSPARENT TERMS ACROSS PLATFORMS. Without them, access to data will remain extremely resource-intensive, discouraging cross-platform research and keeping much of this work in a legal grey area.

For example, both platforms request detailed information about researchers’ qualifications, while Meta even asks for a date of birth and phone number. On top of that, researchers must agree to contradictory or restrictive terms just to apply for data access.

1) Burdensome procedures
In practice, this means that the application processes set up by these platforms may violate the DSA’s provisions. TikTok’s application form reportedly includes around 40 required fields, while Meta’s goes up to 50 - many without connection to the requirements in Art. 40(8)

The key terms here are:
1) burdensome procedures
2)burdensome tools

While the findings themselves are not public, let's take a closer look 🧵👇

I’ll be presenting this work at #CSCW2025 in Bergen on Tuesday at 2:30PM! We will be part of the session “Core Concepts in Privacy Research” (in the Bekken room) chaired by @emtseng.bsky.social ☺️

The parsing code and info on the schema based on Activity Streams 2.0 we suggested: gitlab.weizenbaum-institut.de/lukas.seilin...

@lionw.bsky.social's latest paper on data donations: doi.org/10.12758/mda... (follow him for more to come soon!)

"Instagram head says company is not using your microphone to listen to you (with AI data, it won’t need to)" techcrunch.com/2025/10/01/i...

das Policy Paper:
bsky.app/profile/weiz...

Für alle, die keine Zeit für ~36 Seiten und über 100 Fußnoten im Policy Paper haben, habe ich im Interview mit dem @weizenbauminstitut.bsky.social kurz erklärt worum es im #DSA geht, welche Rolle Forschungsdatenzugang (#DSA40) spielt und was schulterzuckende US-Plattformen damit zu tun haben ⬇️

Cover of the publication

👉 Just published: "Empowering People in Online Spaces: Democracy and Well-being in Digital Societies" - Book of Abstracts of the Weizenbaum Conference 2025. #WIConf25

➡️ doi.org/10.34669/WI.... 🔗

Haven't read this paper yet, but something has been on my mind: because diffusion and LLMs were more "discovered" than "invented," the explanations given for how they work, even by folks in the industry building them, are assumptions. Those stories drive AI narratives, and they're usually wrong.

Today, we’re proud to share the Coalition’s new report: The State of Independent Technology Research: Power in Numbers

It's an offering to our community and all researchers doing public interest work–a reflection of collective strength, solidarity and persistence in the face of adversity. (1/2)

We already have over 100 sign-ups but a few spots are still available for Day 1 of the Data Access Days on research access to platform data under the Digital Services Act (DSA) — happening on 25 September 2025.

Join us in Berlin! 👉 dsa40collaboratory.eu/data-access-...
#DSA40 #DigitalServicesAct

This newsletter does not focus on the ongoing sabre-rattling from across the Atlantic. Instead, we recap all the work we've been doing since the last issue and examples and opportunities for constructive collective engagement around the DSA.
Read here: dsa40collaboratory.eu/newsletters/...

Register to the #DSA40 Data Access days today before we reach maximum capacity!
Join us in Berlin, September 25 & 26 - to connect and collaborate around DSA-based data access!
More info here: dsa40collaboratory.eu/data-access-...

Was passiert eigentlich, wenn wir uns alle einig werden, dass das, was gerade weltweit grassiert und demokratische Errungenschaften sowie große Teile der Menschheit bedroht, Faschismus ist? Geht dann der antifaschistische Kampf los? Oder ist er dann schon gewonnen?

War crimes as a form of marketing

The Hater's Guide To The AI Bubble Hey! Before we go any further — if you want to support my work, please sign up for the premium version of Where’s Your Ed At, it’s a $7-a-month (or $70-a-year) paid product where every week you get a ...

for more insights see:
www.techpolicy.press/unpacking-tr...
and
www.wheresyoured.at/the-haters-g...

The U.S. administration is going all in on its AI death cult. It's side-lining the environment and it's own citizens to scale the build out of an over-leveraged technology, while aggressively pushing their technology onto other countries trying to distribute collapse-risk.

Or as I put it in a talk last year:
This is not tech adoption, it is penetration - decidedly masculine, neither consensual nor reflected and it leaves us and our planet injured, if not violated.

f we don't resist, we're - most literally - fucked.

The Hater's Guide To The AI Bubble Hey! Before we go any further — if you want to support my work, please sign up for the premium version of Where’s Your Ed At, it’s a $7-a-month (or $70-a-year) paid product where every week you get a ...

Newsletter: This is the Hater's Guide To The AI Bubble: genAI is nothing like Uber or Amazon Web Services, there are no profitable genAI companies, agents do not and cannot exist, there is no AI SaaS story, and everything rides - and dies - on selling GPUs.
www.wheresyoured.at/the-haters-g...

Wer beim Forschungsdatenzugang jetzt liefern muss Das letzte Puzzlestück für den Forschungszugang für nicht öffentlich verfügbare Plattformdaten ist da. Die Aufgaben für DSCs, Forschende und Plattformen sind nun klar verteilt. Die Wissenschaftler:inn...

„Wer beim Forschungsdatenzugang jetzt liefern muss” –
@lkseiling.bsky.social, @dscheykopp.bsky.social,
@claesdevreese.bsky.social & @ulrikeklinger.bsky.social heute im @tspbackground.bsky.social:

🔗 t1p.de/zf6pa ⬅️

#dsa @dsa40collaboratory.bsky.social

Meta rebuffs EU over AI rules The code of practice has faced months of fierce lobbying from the tech industry.

Meta just blew a hole in a EU plan to tame artificial intelligence models.

Today, the technology giant was the first Big Tech company to come out saying it will not sign the EU's code of practice for general-purpose AI.

Time To Deliver: Stakeholder Roles In The EU’s Delegated Act On Data Access | TechPolicy.Press The Delegated Act on data access under the DSA provides much-needed clarity about both the access process and expectations towards the actors involved in it.

The discussions about big platforms are intense. The systemic risks are real.

Now the #DSA Delegated Act is finally here to ensure data access for researchers. Time to put this system to work.

W @lkseiling.bsky.social, we show how @techpolicypress.bsky.social

www.techpolicy.press/time-to-deli...

Alternative wäre natürlich, jetzt in Masse über das SBGG die Streichung des Geschlechtseintrags vorzunehmen. So ließen sich vulnerable Gruppen schützen und zugleich Binaritätsnormen unterwandern. Nur leider scheinbar undenkbar.

Die Rückkehr der "Transvestiten-Karteien" muss verhindert werden Das Bundesinnenministerium von Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) plant ein Sonderregister für alle Menschen, die das Selbstbestimmungsgesetz in Anspruch genommen haben. Das ist nicht nur geschichtslos, sondern...

Das Bundesinnenministerium von Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) plant ein Sonderregister für alle Menschen, die das Selbstbestimmungsgesetz in Anspruch genommen haben. Das ist nicht nur geschichtslos, sondern brandgefährlich

In this piece for Tech Policy Press, @dscheykopp.bsky.social , @ulrikeklinger.bsky.social, @claesdevreese.bsky.social and I argue that it's time for regulators, researchers, and platforms to fulfil their roles and standards set by the delegated act on data access.