A Win for Democracy, Transparency, and Research: Standing alongside DRI and GFF

 

At stake in this case was a basic but powerful idea: that researchers should not have to navigate legal and jurisdictional mazes to study how social media platforms impact democratic elections. DRI and GFF sought access to data that is already publicly visible—such as likes, shares, and reach metrics.While DRI’s request for access to research data was rejected due to a lack of urgency, the court made a crucial determination: DRI has the right to enforce its claim to researcher data access against X in Berlin and does not need to bring such a lawsuit in Ireland, where X’s European headquarters are located.

This decision is a huge step forward for researchers across Europe, as it opens the door for future lawsuits to be filed in national courts when platforms fail to meet their obligations to provide researchers with access to data under the DSA. Today’s ruling sends a clear message to platforms: European law protects public-interest research, and those protections are enforceable.

CITR is proud to have a strong coalition of researchers, several of whom showed up in court to defend one of the most fundamental pillars of our democracy: the right to seek information that’s needed to answer questions about how technology shapes our world.We’re deeply grateful to DRI, GFF, and their legal teams for taking this fight forward. And we thank the many members of our Coalition who continue to lend their voices in the fight for this cause. The images from the courtroom—researchers seated in quiet defiance, ready to stand up for the importance of public-interest research—speak volumes about the strength of our community. This is what solidarity looks like. This is what democracy needs.