A group of scholars and nonprofit organizations have asked web platforms to keep track of the content they’re removing during the coronavirus pandemic so they can make it available to researchers studying how online information affects public health. The signatories — including Access Now, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and EU DisinfoLab — sent an open letter to social media and content sharing services, urging them to preserve data even as they remove misinformation.
“The importance of accurate information during this pandemic is clear. But knowledge about the novel coronavirus is rapidly evolving,” reads the letter. That creates an “unprecedented opportunity” to study how online information can affect health outcomes and to evaluate the consequences of specific moderation practices like using heavy automation. “Such studies rely on information that your companies control — including information you are automatically blocking and removing from your services. I​t is essential that platforms preserve this data.”
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Source: Researchers want social media companies to preserve coronavirus misinformation data – The Verge