Social media platforms have become increasingly opaque at precisely the moment their influence on society has reached unprecedented levels. Over the long-term, we need to conceptualize true independent transparency as an infrastructure project built on four pillars—government requirements & legal protections, international standards, shared tooling, and sustainable funding. We are making slow but steady progress on all four.
Former CrowdTangle CEO Brandon Silverman argues there is a critical, urgent path forward in the short term: responsible public interest scraping at scale. This approach requires developing ethical frameworks for conducting unpermissioned research and building accessible tooling & infrastructure, as well as an international strategy to proactively advance legal protections for researchers.
Join a timely conversation to learn why this path is not without its challenges, particularly given the likelihood of reduced government and industry support in the coming years, but why it also represents our best chance to establish the critical oversight function that democratic societies require.
Speaker
Brandon Silverman was the co-founder and former CEO of CrowdTangle, a social media analytics tool that became instrumental in providing transparency for social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit. In 2016, Facebook acquired CrowdTangle, bringing Silverman and his team into the company. Under Facebook (later Meta), CrowdTangle became an important resource for researchers, journalists, and fact-checkers seeking to understand content trends, particularly around elections, misinformation, and public health issues.
Silverman left Meta in October 2021. Since his departure, he has become an outspoken advocate for social media transparency and has worked with lawmakers on legislation to require more data access for researchers. He has testified in the US Senate, as well as Australian Parliament, advised the White House and European Commission, and regularly works with a wide ranging group of international NGOs, non-profits and platforms. His writing and commentary have appeared in the New York Times, CNN, BBC and more.
He is currently a Knight Policy Fellow at George Washington's Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics, as well as an affiliate the Harvard Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society and advisor to a handful of think tanks & civil society organizations.
