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It's not "any company", it's exceptionally large platforms who can give insight into large societal questions and have enough influence to sway people's opinion
by embedding-shape 11mo ago
It's not "any company", it's exceptionally large platforms who can give insight into large societal questions and have enough influence to sway people's opinions. The data is technically public already, researchers could scrape it, but investigations has to be able to be done to ensure the platforms aren't used to intentionally steer people's opinion in a specific direction, since they're unable to self regulate that it seems.
- Aerroon 11mo agoBut governments themselves can steer people's opinions just fine? Can I get access to my politicians' emails "for research purposes"?
- squigz 11mo agoAre those emails already public?
- embedding-shape 11mo agoNo, they cannot. And yes, in some countries you can request that if you have a reason for it.
- Zigurd 11mo ago> Can I get access to my politicians' emails "for research purposes"? In the US that's called an FOIA. It could include their personal devices if they use them for work communication. It's not limited to research purposes.