Data access for researchers within digital platforms: Unpacking the human rights implications, practical opportunities and challenges for the Global Majority

This policy brief examines the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), focusing on Article 40, which establishes a framework for researchers’ access to platform data, and the 2025 Delegated Act that sets out how this access operates in practice. It analyses how this new regime is being developed and implemented, the practical and legal challenges it raises, and its implications for researchers and civil society organisations, particularly in the Global Majority.

The brief assesses whether Article 40 can meaningfully address long-standing information asymmetries between large online platforms, regulators, and the public, while identifying risks that may limit its effectiveness, including restrictive research access, procedural barriers, and unintended impacts on freedom of expression. Bringing a Global Majority perspective often missing from debates around the DSA, the paper explores how Article 40 may shape future data-access and platform governance models beyond Europe, highlighting both its potential and its pitfalls.

The policy brief concludes with reflections on how data-access regimes can be designed and implemented in more inclusive, context-sensitive, and rights-respecting ways.