Bipartisan Senate bill would force social media to hand internal data to vetted researchers

A bipartisan quartet of senators says they will push social media companies like Twitter, TikTok and Facebook to promote transparency by submitting certain internal data to independent and vetted researchers.

The Platform Accountability and Transparency Act would require social media platforms to submit data to researchers whose projects have been approved by the National Science Foundation, an independent agency.

The process would have to follow certain privacy safeguards. For example, researchers would be able to scrutinize ad libraries, information about widely disseminated content, details about content moderation decisions and information about algorithms, according to a bill summary.

Democratic Sens. Chris Coons of Delaware and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota joined Republican Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana in pushing the measure amid concerns about how social media companies promote or censor news stories and individual users.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has released information about how the platform downplayed the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020 and decided to kick former President Donald Trump off the site. And the leaked “Facebook Papers” showed how the social network tended to exacerbate real-world problems, such as religious tensions in India.

“Over the last several months, we’ve seen deeply concerning evidence of how social media platforms are harming our families, our communities, and our democracy,” Ms. Klobuchar said. “This legislation will increase transparency, which will help us hold these companies accountable and understand what information they have on users and what they do with it. It is time for action — we cannot stand by while social media platforms continue to put profits over safety.”

The senators said social media companies maintain “granular” data on how their products impact Americans but only a small fraction of it is made public.

They said the disclosures would also help Congress decide whether to write new laws or empower agencies to regulate the companies more closely.

“Every new disclosure of problematic activities by social media companies reignites calls for Congressional action,” Mr. Portman said. “Before answering any of those calls, Congress should take a step back to ensure that we are not legislating in the dark. Increasing transparency around Big Tech practices will give policymakers the high-quality, well-vetted information we need to do our job most effectively.”