The Post-API Conference II: Social media Data Acquisition 

Organizing committee

Daniel Angus, Queensland University of Technology

Deen Freelon, University of Pennsylvania

Josephine Lukito, University of Texas at Austin

Bree McEwan, University of Toronto Mississauga 

Josh Pasek, University of Michigan

Conference details

Tuesday, June 25, 2024

QUT Gardens Point Campus, Brisbane, Australia

9am - 4pm

Social media data and other digital traces has contributed a wealth of information to academic researchers who have engaged with this data in order to study relational processes, public health, migration, well-being, global challenges, and other important aspects of the human experience. Although social media data has clear implications for public good research and scholarship on social media platforms, and transparency is key to understanding the influence of these channels on people and democracies, the private and proprietary nature of digital data means that access has survived in an uncomfortable and unpredictable flux for years. Recent contractions of API access have led to an existential crisis for social media researchers. 

Following on the heels of the successful conversation at the first Post-API Conference (UPenn, October 2023) we’re looking to continue to convene some of the brightest minds working on these issues across disciplines to help identify the most viable solutions and alternatives.

Consider the following developments from the past 12 months:

• Elon Musk’s X eliminated free access to Twitter’s API, chilling most academic research on the platform.

• Reddit denied access to its API for Pushshift, a popular service used by researchers to collect Reddit data while at the same time inking a deal to sell Reddit data as a training set to a proprietary company. 

• TikTok released a new API for researchers, which provides a veneer of accessibility while making it difficult to acquire usable datasets. 

• Meta is building out their Content Library but continued engagement is necessary to consider how useful the provided data is to questions of import for scholars and policymakers. 

• New platforms are emerging, but more conversation is needed to consider data access across the fediverse. 

• Increased calls that restrictions to social media APIs harm academic research and open science. 

If your research pipeline has been caught in the crossfire of these and similar developments, we welcome your participation in the Post-API Conference II. This conference will continue the nontraditional structure from last year while also providing additional workshop time for presenting and non-presenting participants and presentations from large-scale projects and organizations working to improve researcher data access and continued discussion of these issues. 

Potential participants can choose one of the following submission types: 

• Lightning Talk (Discussion Sparks) 

  • Participants in this type will present a 5 minute-lightning talk on a panel of four to five others. A large-scale moderated discussion will follow each set of lightning talks. We particularly encourage talks on one of the following topics: 

    • Tools & Training. What tools/software/workflows/perspectives are missing from our research toolkits? How can we stay nimble and responsive to a constantly changing data ecosystem? What tools/software/workflows/perspectives have you developed or used that you’d like to showcase? What broad types of education do people in this area need (e.g. does everyone need to learn to code)? 

    • Storage and access. How can we overcome challenges in post-acquisition data storage and access, especially across institutions? 

    • Policy. What policy considerations (or lack thereof) should we bear in mind as we plow forward? Would it be worth the effort to create a broad, interdisciplinary policy framework? How have different regulatory environments led to different access options. 

• Infrastructure Reports 

  • We are also keen to hear from people who are building out infrastructure, coalitions, data access tools, archives, and observatories for the broader research audience. 

  • Presentation format (e.g. short presentations or information stations) will depend upon the number and type of submissions that we receive in this category. At this time please send a commitment to having at least one member of the team present, and overview of the project they will be representing, and how that project contributes to data accessibility and policy for the larger academic community. 

•  Workshop Participant 

  • We realize that there are researchers and related individuals who have a vested interest in the conversations at the Post-API conference but may not have a specific project or problem to report on at this time. We are dedicated to having workshop/discussion time during the day that the broader audience can participate in. For this track simply let us know your name, affiliation(s), and interest in the event. 

Submission Information

Applicants interested in giving a lightning talk should submit a memo (no more than 1 page single spaced) describing their topic. We encourage participants to think broadly here: for example, you could discuss a project that failed because you could not gather the data, impending concerns about studying a particular platform, concerns regarding non-traditional data collection methods, or new data collection software you developed. In your proposal, please indicate which panel you feel best fits your talk. You may also apply to attend the conference without submitting a lightning talk proposal, but preference will be given to those who submit proposals.

Submissions are due by Friday, March 15, 2024 at midnight Pacific Daylight Time/PDT (UTC -700). Please submit your proposal in MS Word or PDF format by clicking the following link:

Post-API Conference submission form: https://forms.gle/K4VEukb5sukYXP9z7 

Due to the sensitive nature of some of the conversations that may take place we are encouraging in-person attendance and will unfortunately not be able to offer a virtual attendance option. 

Author teams for which multiple authors wish to attend the conference should designate one team member to submit their proposal. Every individual who wishes to attend must submit their own separate application. Please send any questions to post.api.conf@gmail.com.