What Did We Learn About Political Communication from the Meta2020 Partnership?

What did we learn from the Meta2020 research studies? Despite the ambition of this project, tensions emerge between producing precise statistical estimates and generating broadly applicable knowledge about social media’s societal impacts. There are crucial challenges in translating theoretical concepts into measurable interventions on social media platforms exacerbated by the difficulties in conducting big, consensus-based science. While the Meta2020 studies represent the pinnacle of social science research on social media, they also expose the limitations of empirical social science in understanding and regulating rapidly evolving digital platforms. I argue that proactive regulation of social media is necessary, given the demonstrated lack of understanding of these platforms’ effects, even by the platforms themselves. This analysis contributes to ongoing discussions about the role of academic-industry partnerships in studying and governing social media platforms.