Research
2024
- Our recommendations to the European Commission on rules for researcher access to online platformsDec 13, 2024
- Issues with the TikTok Research API and its effect on researchers Nov 15, 2024
- Streamlining TikTok Research: Introducing our Open-Source LibraryOct 28, 2024
At Cybersecurity for Democracy, one of our goals is to increase transparency in the tech industry and build tools to increase researchers ability to study online platforms.
- Don’t click this link: Illegal activity in Ads on Meta Apps linking to TelegramSep 4, 2024
- Threats to Election Workers: Measuring and Mitigating this Anti-democratic BehaviorJun 24, 2024
- Teen Experiences on Social MediaJun 20, 2024
Instagram and TikTok both say they have different feed experiences for users based on whether they are adults or minors. To find out, I tested these platforms as a 23 year old and 13 year old user, and found that the TikTok experiences was very different between my adult and teen 'personas', but the Instagram Reels experiences were not.
- Preventing Tech-Fueled Political Violence: What online platforms can do to ensure they do not contribute to election-related violenceMay 21, 2024
- Getting to know the TikTok Research APIMay 6, 2024
2023
- Too little, too late: By the time harmful content posted to Facebook during the Capitol riot period came down, millions had already engaged Jan 6, 2023
In the afternoon of January 6, 2021, Facebook leadership announced they were “appalled by the violence at the Capitol today,” and were approaching the situation “as an emergency.”
2022
- Abortion and Trump top topics for federal candidate political ad spending on Facebook and InstagramDec 7, 2022
Ad Observatory data provides insight on messaging associated with winning campaigns by party and other factors
- Summary of findings: “We’re going to kill you all”: Facebook fails to detect death threats against election workers in the U.S., while Youtube and TikTok succeedDec 1, 2022
An investigation by Global Witness and the NYU Cybersecurity for Democracy (C4D) team looked at Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube's ability to detect and remove death threats against election workers in the run up to the US midterm elections.
The investigation revealed starkly contrasting results for the social media giants: YouTube and TikTok suspended our accounts for violating their policies, whereas Facebook accepted 15 of the 20 advertisements containing death threats that we submitted to them for publication.