Elon Musk's X restructuring curtails disinformation research, spurs legal fears
Social media researchers have canceled, suspended or changed more than 100 studies about X, formerly Twitter, as a result of actions taken by Elon Musk that limit access to the social media platform, nearly a dozen interviews and a survey of planned projects show.
Musk's restrictions on critical methods of gathering data on the global platform have suppressed the ability to untangle the origin and spread of false information during real-time events such as Hamas' attack on Israel and the Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, researchers told Reuters.
The most important method was a tool that gave researchers access to data about 10 million tweets per month. Twitter notified researchers in February it would end free academic access to this application programming interface (API) as part of an overhaul of the tool, according to an email seen by Reuters.
The 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.
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It also shows a majority of survey respondents fear being sued by X over their findings or use of data. The worry follows X's July lawsuit against the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) after it published critical reports about the platform's content moderation.
Musk did not respond to a request for comment and an X representative declined to comment. The company has previously said that nearly all content views are of "healthy" posts.
Musk's first year of ownership of X has been marked by advertisers fleeing the site, concerned that their ads could appear next to harmful content. X's U.S. ad
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