Facebook Shuts Down Research On Itself
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 19 August 2021
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In October 2020, Facebook sent a cease and desist letter to two New York University researchers collecting data on the ads Facebook hosts on its platform, arguing that the researchers were breaching the company’s terms of service. The researchers disagreed and kept up with their work. On August 3, after months of failed negotiations, Facebook shut off access to their accounts—an aggressive move that journalists and scholars denounced as an effort by the company to shield itself from transparency.
For this week’s episode of our Arbiters of Truth series on our online information ecosystem, Evelyn Douek and Quinta Jurecic spoke with Alex Abdo, the litigation director at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University (where, full disclosure, Evelyn will soon join as a senior research fellow). The Knight Institute is providing legal representation to the two NYU researchers, Laura Edelson and Damon McCoy—and Alex walked us through what exactly is happening here. Why did Facebook ban Edelson and McCoy’s accounts, and what does their research tool, Ad Observer, do? What’s the state of the law, and is there any merit to Facebook’s claims that its hands are tied? And what does this mean for the future of research and journalism on Facebook?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
| 0:07.2 | podcast become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:14.7 | That's patreon.com slash LawFair. |
| 0:18.2 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair |
| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:30.7 | Ad observers by no means the only research project that Facebook has tried to shut down, but |
| 0:39.2 | the position that they've taken in those cases they may defend as necessary to protect |
| 0:45.2 | privacy without actually contending with the need for independent research. |
| 0:51.9 | I'm Quintet Jurassic and this is the LawFair podcast, August 19, 2021. |
| 0:59.9 | In October 2020, Facebook sent a season to assist letter to two New York University |
| 1:05.7 | researchers collecting data on the ad's Facebook hosts on its platform, arguing that the researchers |
| 1:12.7 | were breaching the company's terms of service. |
| 1:16.2 | The researchers disagreed and kept up with our work, but on August 3, after months of failed |
| 1:22.6 | negotiations, Facebook shut off access to their accounts, an aggressive move that journalists |
| 1:29.2 | and scholars denounced as an effort to shield the company from transparency. |
| 1:34.6 | For this week's episode of our Arbiteros of Truth series on our online information ecosystem, |
| 1:39.6 | Evelyn Duac and I spoke with Alex Abdo, the litigation director at the night for St. |
| 1:43.8 | Amendment Institute, a Columbia University, where, full disclosure, Evelyn will soon join |
| 1:49.2 | as a senior research fellow. |
| 1:51.2 | The night institute is providing legal representation to the two NYU researchers, Laura Edelsen and |
| 1:56.9 | Damon McCoy. |
| 1:57.9 | And Alex walked us through what exactly is happening here. |
... |
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