The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) requires very large online platforms and search engines (VLOPs) to provide publicly accessible data to researchers meeting certain requirements (Article 40(12)). While some platforms have taken laudable steps to implement such data access opportunities, serious concerns remain about full compliance with the DSA in this regard. This is reflected in the European Commission’s effort to request information from 17 VLOPs on how they comply with Article 40(12).
Currently, researchers from academia and civil society still face significant hurdles when trying to request publicly accessible data from VLOPs. To provide the Commission and Digital Services Coordinators with insights for their oversight work, this paper offers an analysis of early experiences with Article 40(12) data access requests and suggestions for improvement. It is based on conversations with researchers and on data collected through the DSA 40 Data Access Tracker.