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The most important method was a tool that gave researchers access to data about 10 million tweets per month. Twitter notified researchersThe survey of 167 academic and civil society researchers conducted at Reuters’ request by the Coalition for Independent Technology Research in September quantifies for the first time the number of studies that have been canceled due to Musk’s policies.
The affected studies include research on hate speech and topics that have garnered global regulatory scrutiny. In one example, a stalled project sought to study child safety on X. The platform was recently fined by an Australian regulator for failing to cooperate with a probe into anti-child abuse practices.
The EU’s investigation of X, under new strict internet rules that took effect in August, underscore the potential regulatory threat to the San Francisco-based company. Any violation could result in fines of up to 6% of global revenue. One former employee, who declined to be named for fear of backlash from Musk, said the decision to shut down free academic API access came down to an urgent need to focus on boosting revenue and cutting costs in the aftermath of Musk’s takeover.
Several researchers told Reuters they now have limited options to study X, such as manually analyzing posts.