Research project How well do the EU’s new rules for digital platforms work in practice? This project examines researchers’ ability to access data from large platforms under the Digital Services Act, with a particular focus on livestreaming – an area that may constitute a blind spot in the EU’s new system for transparency and oversight.
The EU’s Digital Services Act aims to make large digital platforms more transparent and give researchers better opportunities to scrutinise their activities. The project examines how access to platform data works in practice and what obstacles researchers face. Particular attention is paid to livestreaming, where content is often ephemeral and difficult for researchers to access.
How do the EU’s new rules for digital platforms work in practice? And what opportunities do researchers have to scrutinise what happens on the largest platforms?
During 2025–2026, Moa Eriksson Krutrök has participated as an EU expert in work conducted within the European Centre for Algorithmic Transparency (ECAT), focusing on the implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA). Together with a group of researchers and experts working with the EU, she, along with Felicia Lundstedt, PhD student at the Department of Sociology, and Therese Enarsson, Senior Lecturer in Law, has examined how researchers’ ability to access platform data works in practice, with particular focus on Article 40(12) of the DSA.
The work has included expert meetings, workshops, and analyses of researchers’ opportunities to access data from very large online platforms. A report resulting from the expert work was finalised within the EU in July 2026.
The work has also led to research examining access to a particular type of data that is often excluded from platforms’ data storage: livestreams. Because livestreams are often ephemeral and can be technically and procedurally difficult to access, they create particular challenges for research and scrutiny of this content. This is the case even though platforms are required to provide transparency regarding forms of content that may constitute systemic risks, such as the spread of disinformation, illegal activity, or electoral interference.
The study thus contributes to the broader question of how opportunities for research and scrutiny actually work when the EU’s new platform regulations are put into practice.
