Ethics, social media research, and users views
Summary
TLDRThe speaker delves into the complex ethical landscape of social media research, highlighting the spectrum of views on data usage. They emphasize the evolving nature of social media platforms and the resulting unique challenges to traditional ethical frameworks. Key issues discussed include consent, data privacy, the public-private space debate, and the evolving understanding of data ownership. The talk stresses the importance of context-specific ethical considerations and the need for ongoing dialogue within the research community.
Takeaways
- đ€ The ethics of social media research is a complex and evolving field with no single right answer, and opinions vary widely among researchers.
- đ There is a spectrum of views on the ethics of using social media data, ranging from those who see it as a public resource to those who prioritize user consent and anonymity.
- đ The New Social Media, New Social Science Network, led by the speaker, aims to address the lack of guidance on ethical issues in social media research.
- đ Surveys of the Network's members revealed that only about a third felt current guidelines were adequate for the ethical challenges posed by social media research.
- đ The characteristics of social media platforms create unique ethical challenges that traditional research ethics frameworks do not fully address.
- đ The debate over whether social media platforms are public or private spaces has legal implications and affects how data can be ethically collected and used.
- đ„ The diversity of social media platforms and the evolving nature of their features and terms of service complicate the establishment of consistent ethical guidelines.
- đ Ethical considerations include data security, confidentiality, and the challenges of anonymizing inherently personal social media data.
- đ The 'right to be forgotten' raises questions about how to handle data when users delete their posts and whether this constitutes a withdrawal of consent.
- đ Informed consent is a central issue in social media research, with questions about the adequacy of terms and conditions as a form of consent.
- đ· The ownership of social media data is complex, involving not just the platforms but also third-party companies that sell the data.
Q & A
What is the main topic of the speaker's discussion?
-The main topic is the ethics of social media research, highlighting the complexities and the spectrum of views on how social media data can be used ethically.
What are the two extreme views on the use of social media data for research mentioned in the script?
-One extreme view is that social media data is publicly available and can be used freely, often held by those with computer programming and big data analytics backgrounds. The other extreme is that of social science and social research backgrounds, who emphasize the need for consent and anonymity, and are more cautious about using social media data.
What does the speaker suggest as the best approach to ethical social media research?
-The speaker suggests that the best approach is to consider the specific context of each research project, including the nature of the data, the particular issues related to it, and to think reflexively to maximize the potential insight of the research.
What is the 'New Social Media, New Social Science Network' that the speaker leads?
-It is a network originally funded by NCRM, focused on methodological development for social media research. It has a Twitter handle, a hashtag, a blog, and organizes various events throughout the year to engage with the community interested in social media research.
Why did the network start looking into ethics?
-The network started looking into ethics because of the frequent concerns raised about the lack of guidance on how to deal with the specific ethical issues raised by social media research, as identified through their member surveys and discussions.
What is the key debate regarding whether social media platforms are considered public or private spaces?
-The key debate is about the legal implications and ethical considerations of data collection. It revolves around whether the Data Protection Act applies to the data being collected and whether it is publicly available or not, which affects consent and privacy issues.
What is the 'right to be forgotten' in the context of social media research?
-The 'right to be forgotten' refers to the situation where a user deletes their post and whether this should be treated as a removal of consent for the data's use in research. It raises questions about data retention and the ability to reflect such changes in research datasets.
How does the speaker address the issue of informed consent in social media research?
-The speaker discusses the challenges of obtaining informed consent in social media research, questioning the adequacy of terms and conditions as a form of consent and the feasibility of obtaining consent when dealing with large datasets like tweets.
What are some of the ethical issues related to data security and confidentiality in social media research?
-Ethical issues include protecting data securely and confidentially, dealing with the inherent personal nature of social media data that can be re-identified even when anonymized, and managing data sharing agreements, especially when involving third parties like Mechanical Turk workers.
What is the significance of the evolving nature of social media platforms in terms of research ethics?
-The evolving nature of social media platforms, with new sites, applications, features, and terms and conditions, constantly changes the context and methodologies for social media research, requiring ongoing adaptation and re-evaluation of ethical approaches.
What resources does the speaker recommend for further understanding of social media research ethics?
-The speaker recommends industry guidelines, the University of Aberdeen framework, the Lancaster University Ethics forum, the 'Since Rapport: Social Media Research Views' report, 'The Wisdom of the Crowd' report, and the upcoming book on online research ethics, as well as the 'Handbook of Social Media Research'.
Outlines
đ€ Ethical Dilemmas in Social Media Research
The speaker begins by addressing the complexity of ethics in social media research, highlighting the wide range of opinions on the use of publicly available data. They discuss the spectrum of views, from those who believe data can be freely used due to its public nature, to social scientists who emphasize the importance of consent and anonymity. The speaker mentions leading the 'New Social Media, New Social Science Network,' which aims to develop methodologies for social media research. They note that while there is no consensus on ethical guidelines, there is a growing understanding and middle ground being explored. The speaker also points out the need for researchers to consider the specific context and nature of their projects when thinking about ethics.
đ Navigating the Evolving Landscape of Social Media Ethics
This paragraph delves into the challenges of conducting social media research due to the ever-changing nature of platforms and user demographics. The speaker discusses how the type of platform, the target population, and the specific research context can significantly alter the ethical considerations. They mention the difficulty in prescribing one-size-fits-all guidance due to the dynamic landscape. However, progress has been made, with the social research community becoming more engaged and better understanding the ethical issues involved. The speaker encourages researchers to be aware of potential issues and adapt their methodologies to maximize insights while maintaining ethical standards.
đ The Debate Over Public vs. Private Space in Social Media
The speaker explores the debate on whether social media platforms are public or private spaces, which has legal implications for data protection and the ethics of passive data collection. They note the inconsistency across different social media sites and even within platforms, as some data may be more public than others. The concept of user expectations regarding being observed is introduced as a way to consider the privacy of social media data. The speaker also touches on the disconnect between user expectations, terms and conditions, and researcher intentions, emphasizing the complexity of obtaining informed consent in social media research.
đ Data Security, Confidentiality, and the 'Right to Be Forgotten'
In this paragraph, the speaker discusses the challenges of ensuring data security and confidentiality in social media research, given the inherently personal nature of such data. They address the difficulty of truly anonymizing social media data and the implications of the 'right to be forgotten,' where a user's deletion of their post may imply a withdrawal of consent. The speaker also raises questions about the responsibility of researchers in such cases and the lack of mechanisms to reflect these changes in research data.
đ Ethical Considerations in Data Ownership and Publication
The speaker examines the complexities surrounding data ownership, the right to republish or alter social media data, and the expectations of users regarding the visibility of their content. They discuss the differences in terms and conditions across various social media platforms and the ethical implications of these differences. The paragraph also touches on the challenges of maintaining objectivity and data quality when researchers' own online activities may become part of the research data.
đ Broadening the Scope: Additional Ethical Challenges in Social Media Research
This paragraph expands on the ethical challenges in social media research, including the representation of diverse voices, the verification of data sources, the implications of online and offline identity, and the broader networks exposed through social media data. The speaker also raises concerns about the responsibility of researchers when encountering sensitive content and the legal issues intertwined with Terms of Service. They conclude by recommending various resources for further exploration of these ethical issues.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄEthics
đĄSocial Media Research
đĄInformed Consent
đĄData Protection Act
đĄPublic Space vs. Private Space
đĄAnonymity
đĄData Security and Confidentiality
đĄRight to be Forgotten
đĄData Ownership
đĄBlurring Boundaries
đĄBias
Highlights
Ethics in social media research is complex with no single right answer, highlighting the spectrum of views on the use of social media data.
The debate between computer programming and big data analytics backgrounds versus social science and social research backgrounds on the ethics of using publicly available social media data.
The importance of finding a middle ground in the ethics of social media research and adapting methodologies based on specific projects and data.
The New Social Media, New Social Science Network's role in fostering discussions on methodological development and ethics in social media research.
Survey findings that only a third of researchers feel current guidelines are adequate for social media research, indicating a need for updated ethical frameworks.
The unique challenges of social media characteristics in research, such as the mediation of the relationship between the researcher and the subject.
The evolving nature of social media platforms and the implications for ethical guidelines and data usage permissions.
The legal and ethical intersection of data usage on social media, including changes in terms and conditions and their impact on data sharing.
The significance of considering the context of social media data, such as the platform used and the target population, in ethical decision-making.
The ethical considerations of data security and confidentiality in social media research, especially given the personal and identifiable nature of the data.
The debate on informed consent in social media research, questioning the adequacy of terms and conditions as a form of consent.
The challenges of the 'right to be forgotten' in social media research, particularly when dealing with deleted posts and the lack of mechanisms to reflect such changes.
The complexities of data ownership in social media research, including the role of social media platforms in selling access to user data.
The ethical implications of the blurring boundaries between professional and personal identities in social media research contexts.
The importance of considering the representation of diverse voices in social media research and the potential for bias in sample selection.
The ethical responsibilities of researchers when encountering sensitive content online, including the question of reporting abuse or intervening.
The need for ongoing discussions and developments in ethical guidelines for social media research, given the dynamic landscape of the field.
A list of recommended resources for further exploration of ethical issues in social media research, including industry guidelines and academic frameworks.
Transcripts
I'm gonna talk a little bit about ethics
and social media research just to give
an overview and it's really complicated
I guess is a reasonable starting point
and there are no sort of single right
answers and you know just as Leslie was
talking about there being sort of people
over here and people over here and their
attitudes to how social media data can
be used and how valuable that research
is there's also this huge spectrum of
very very different views around what
are the ethics of social media research
on on the one hand you've got people who
are typically for more computer
programming and big data analytics
backgrounds who feel like Twitter social
media data are publicly available and
any you can pretty much do whatever you
like with it and then you've got people
right at the other end and typically
from the kind of backgrounds that we
have or I have which is of social
science social research backgrounds
where we think actually hang on how it
where's the consent for this whereas the
anonymity so on and so forth and
actually really scared and quite off put
or put off about using social media data
and again I think the kind of conclusion
that Leslie was coming to is that
actually there's this middle ground and
we're trying to sort of feel our way to
what that is
so what I'm not going to do is give a
hoot of answers about ethics and social
media research but what I'll try and do
is raise some questions and I think
that's for my personal perspective my
personal opinion that's the best way
forward is when you're conducting
research if you're conducting research
with social media data it's thinking
about your particular project your
particular circumstances and your
particular data and what are the
particular issues related to that that
that's caught sort of the conclusion of
what I'm going to talk about and I'll go
into a little bit of detail the first
thing I'd like to mention is and the
reason I'm talking about this is I lead
something called the new social media
new social science Network which was
originally an N CRM funded Network about
four or five years ago and they fund it
for a year but then since then Mattson
National Center for Social Research is
where I work
we've taken it on and we now sort of
internally fund it and manage it as sort
of part of our ongoing charitable remit
for methodological development and we
have Twitter handle and a hashtag a blog
and we run various events throughout the
year so if you're interested in social
media research do follow us to engage
with us it's a really useful network and
worthwhile following so why did we end
up looking into ethics oh one of the key
issues that came out of our network
events we ran early on when we were
first as enough was that regardless what
we were talking about whether we're
talking about tools for social media
analysis you know how actually useful it
is whatever we spoke about people were
always raising concerns about ethics and
more specifically expressing a sense
about what they saw as a lack of
guidance on how to deal with some of the
very very specific ethical issues raised
by this of new methodological area
actually what we did we surveyed our
members and we found that sort of only
around the third felt that they the
current guidelines that they had were
up-to-date and adequate for the kind of
research that they were trying to do so
the existing framework the stuff that
was over here in my sort of framework
the stuff that social researchers have
been using for years and years in years
and just just wasn't answering the
questions it wasn't give them the
guidance that they needed and but
clearly many of the issues raised by the
by social research are actually
addressed by those ethical guidelines
the basic concepts are still there we
still want to protect our respondents we
still want to make sure we're making the
most of that data we still want to
maintain anonymity anonymity where we
can we still want to do all those kinds
of things but what's different is that
the characteristics of social media in
terms of how they mediate the
relationship between the researcher and
the person who's being researched really
create unique challenges that have not
really been previously previously
covered so should I quite like quite
like this get quote there's the online
research presents new ethical problems
and but specifically recast old ones in
new forms and new guises but those
issues are going to really really vary
by project so whatever what the subject
you're focusing on so are you doing
research into sort of domestic violence
it's gonna have really really really
different sort of ethical context and if
you're doing something on riots or if
you're doing something on online hate or
you're doing something on how people
travel or tourism or so and so forth
it's the so the that's going to vary
things hugely but also beyond that who's
your target population
you know people people online people on
Facebook could be aged 11 12 13 are you
trying to research that group of people
it's very very different context if
you're trying to research an adult
population the platform that you're
using massively changes the context
Twitter and we talk about Twitter a huge
amount and too much when we talk about
social media research because it is open
it's because it's easy to relatively
easy to access but actually if you want
to start looking at things like web
forums or Facebook is he also still
quite hard or all the multitude of other
sort of social media platforms that
exist again it changes the context and
it changes and methodologies that you're
going to even use to do that so for
example you know observing discussions
in an online forum for cancer patients
is something that I've seen people use
use social media methods for and that's
really really sensitive and that's got
real particular ethical ash issues on
the other hand someone using Facebook
just as a snowball recruitment method is
a completely different research context
and has very very very different content
very basis very very different questions
a further complexity to that is that
social media are constantly evolving
with new sites or new applications being
created and but actually even with the
new with the ones that exist new
features coming up and new terms and
conditions as well so that which will
change the way you're allowed to use
that data and we sort of earlier touch
upon the difference between legality and
ethics but they do sort of intersect and
move apart as well and it's something
that sort of falls into this disguise
so for example when somebody signed up
to Twitter sort of however many years
ago I don't know if those terms
ignitions when they were doing text
messaging but a little bit further along
when you sign when we agree to those
terms and conditions you're agreeing to
a certain set of data certain type of
data being shared but since then you've
added capabilities like sharing video
sharing images now a larger amount of
text links geolocation etc when you
agree to those terms and conditions
that's not necessarily the same thing
that you're using the social media data
for now or their social media site for
now and all of this variety in terms of
the platforms and all this variety in
terms of how things change just make it
particularly difficult to prescribe
guidance you know one size does
invariably not fit all for how we should
be how we should be approaching research
on social media and ethical manner that
said despite sort of the relatively
novel and dynamic landscape and all
social media research headway has been
made and I think as the social research
community is becoming more and more and
more engaged with social media data as
potential research tool these various
issues are being better identified and
being on better understood and therefore
being better addressed there are more
and more case studies and more and more
examples of how research have been done
and even if those case studies even if
those examples weren't perfect at least
it's a method of saying you know in a
transparent way we made these mistakes
if we did this again this is how we
would improve it and you know in that
sort of standing on the shoulders of
giants kind of way we're getting better
and better about about thinking about
how we should be operating ethically and
so just as just to sort of give a few
examples I say you know while it's not
quite the Wild West it was a few years
ago there's still a lot of work to be
done and as I said the evolving nature
may mean that the ethical work on social
media research will I mean it's true for
all research but in particular in social
media context never will be done because
what we're thinking about will be
constantly be changing
so it's therefore important the
researchers are aware of the possible
issues of conducting research while
using social media so you can adapt
their methodology in a more reflexive
manner which maximizes the potential
insight of that's research I think it's
really really important than when we
talk about ethics we're not just
thinking about it in terms of protection
and and and minimizing harm and risk but
also thinking about how can we maximize
the actual research value of this data
without within that framework within
that context and what I'll do is just
going to run through some of these areas
just to give you an idea and insight
into some of the types of issues that
have been raised by researchers as part
of an network over the past few years
and this is by no means exhaustive not
every point will apply to every kind of
study but the idea is I'll just give you
sort of a flavor of some of the kinds of
issues that we want to address so one
key debate is whether social media
platforms count as a public space or a
private space and this has some legal
implications start off with so whether
the Data Protection Act applies to the
data that you're collecting or not and
is defined by whether that those data
Republic or not and also as are the
ethics of whether it's okay to collect
this data passively and again it's it's
not consistent in all contexts just not
all social media data are public and not
all social media data are private you
know different types of sites or some
sites are more public and than others
and actually even within platforms
within particular social media platforms
you can make different types of
arguments for different types of data so
if somebody on Twitter makes their
account private that might make that you
might interpret that as as them saying
that actually this is private data it's
not publicly available is somebody's
open page on a Facebook site similar to
a group is a public group different to a
private group she was soon as you and
this in misses of what I mean when it
gets quite complicated you have to be
very very specific about the face of
work that you're doing
one way that
I like to think about this is in terms
of the expectation of being observed so
is it likely that a user would expect
their posts expect their content to be
viewed outside of the members of that
group or their followers or friends or
those in their local area or you know
who those people who've swiped from
their swipe right on on tinder whatever
who are they expecting to have their
date data viewed by but actually that
adds even further complexity because
when people when a lot of researchers
use Twitter data when someone said when
someone sends out tweets that you
actually really expect it to be looked
at by their followers the API and the
open data actually means that it is
still publicly available to everyone and
there's this real disconnect between
what users might necessarily expect and
what the terms and conditions say and
what other people think and what
researchers might want them to be
thinking when they say that and just as
earlier when I was talking about how
people using these data can have quite a
wide range of opinions on what his end
was he's not ethical in this context
actually users and social media users
have a really really very perspective
and really really varied ideas of what's
okay and what's appropriate for their
data to be used I so about two three
years ago net Sen did some qualitative
research with people who use social
media data and we found a huge spectrum
and a huge range of different views on
as I was talking to Mike earlier about
people thinking about their admin how
people feel about their administrative
data being used by government and on the
one hand that some people might be
really sensitive and say no big brother
that's awful but others are kind of
surprised what the government isn't
already linking all that data together
how inefficient and how terrible it's
actually the same kind of thing for
social media data some people when you
ask them actually you know feel really
private really defense and say no I own
this data this is my intellectual
property and other people shouldn't be
using it but others are saying yeah
that's fine I've put it out into the
public domain I completely understand
this and I kind of assume that people
would be using it already anyway and
that just makes that so happen it just
makes things so much harder for us as
researchers because we can't change our
approaches depending on what the people
are using individually because we're
right trying to understand an aggregate
level for being aware the fact that
there are these range of opinions is
important for the decisions that we make
I think in that context one of the
things is think about is how we approach
the observation ethically and how that
might impact behavior so we've talked a
lot about Twitter data and pulling that
in automatically but actually there are
circumstances in a smaller qualitative
study or a researcher might embed
themselves in a in a forum within a
group and in that context should
research a lurk should they just stay
there sit there observe and and take
things in or should they be engaging
with participants they need to declare
themselves as present do they need to
get consent from the other people who
are using that forum or perhaps would it
be sufficient to get consent and consent
from an administrator of that forum
thinking these things through and again
vary in varying different contexts will
change that informed consent in social
research is sort of one of the basic
tenets one of the one of the key
important bits of it and some people
suggest that terms and conditions cover
informed consent as they will offer they
will typically state that you know the
data will be used for research purposes
but do people even read those terms and
conditions I mean I I work in social
media research and I've never even
bothered like reading the terms of
petitions for a good number anyone who
signed up to the Wi-Fi in this hotel
that had to click the terms because
anyone read it yeah so you know how can
we claim that's informed consent with
any sort of any sorts of reality any any
sort of sense of authenticity and even
if they did read those terms and
conditions when they did that did they
have any sort of idea of how their data
were going to be used when when Leslie
was sort of pulling up all this Twitter
information he searched on brexit and
you know fine maybe Jacob Riis mug
accepted that when he tweeted something
out lots of people were tweeted out
about brexit lots of people were going
to see that but in that data set you
also would have had Steve from Dundee
sort of saying some
thing slacking off the Tories and but he
didn't expect that there'll be this room
of people in Southampton having a look
at that and thinking oh that's what
Steve from Dundee thinks about that
particular issue and again that's in one
hand you know that's what Steve signed
up for that's what Steve agreed to when
he signed the terms and conditions but
you certainly didn't think that I'd be
seeing that and be talking up there
wasn't a Steven Dundee by the way I've
made him up my people so yeah that's
really interesting and and really
problems to memorize as this issue so we
need to think about when is informed
consent needed you know what what level
of consent is adequate and how can we be
sure that's informed you know is it
feasible in when we're trying to scrape
in millions and millions and millions of
tweets no it's really not but maybe we
think about how we do it later down the
line if we want to publish something
using their data if you want to if you
want to do something a little bit more
rather than analyzing it in abstract but
actually if you're working in a smaller
sample when you're working in a forum
when you're walk at working in a
Facebook group actually perhaps there is
something a little bit more engaged that
you can do the right to be forgotten if
we do take the idea or principle that
posting in a public forum is an
acceptable form of consent then how do
we deal with the situations where a user
deletes their post should that be
treated as removal of consent certainly
that's something we would allow within
traditional research research context if
we ran a survey and then that
participant got in contact with us that
Nats then said actually please delete
all of my data then we will be obliged
to do so but when you've downloaded
hundreds and thousands of thousands of
tweets there's no sort of mechanism for
for me to know that somebody's
necessarily deleted that and changed my
analysis to reflect that and actually
there are particular requirements and
legal requirements for us to do so but
the mechanism to do that just aren't in
place and to what extent is that is it
the researchers who are responsible for
identifying that case given that
participants don't even know that their
data have been collected and they're you
being used for that particular piece of
research
data security and confidentiality so how
do you protect the data securely and
confidentially so you can apply the
usual kinds of protection methods we
were talking about D identification and
anonymization earlier but social media
data is inherently personal so it is
inherently identifiable you can strip
out a twitter user name or Twitter
handle but if anyone with Google and
access to the raw data Tech's can search
that and go straight back to linking to
that individual is so even when we sort
of D identify it can all that can all be
traced back and that's a really sort of
odd context for an analyst but we aren't
used to and ad typical ethical
frameworks aren't used to research as
being able to know who individuals are
when they're conducting analysis and
actually I'll talk about that later it's
not necessarily just researchers doing
that if you're taking a data set and
putting it out to coders for example
people from Mechanical Turk will be
sifting the large data sets what are the
data sharing agreements like they're
when you're trying to get people to look
through this data and they know that
you're coding stuff on racist tweets or
prejudiced tweets and they'll be able to
see that that individual has said that
what are the ethics of that and then
finally the output status as well is
publication so for example Twitter's
terms and services tell you that you
when you publish a quote or tweet you
have to put their hand or you have to
put everything in all in its original
context which is the complete opposite
of what we do when we typically quote
qualitative data and stuff and
qualitative interviews we might
paraphrase we might change random words
but the terms and conditions from
Twitter tell you that you can't do that
so how do we balance up those two those
two elements that were sort of legal and
the ethical side data ownership and
publication so to further complicate
things
our
so yet to add to that does the context
of the publication matter so does it
matter whether it's a journal paper an
internal report a blog post what what
might be a user's expectation to the
level of viewing of what they're putting
out so if we're happy that nobody
actually is going to see this out of a
small academic academic community is
that okay actually if we're putting a
lot a big post online we're writing a
journalistic piece where thousands of
people might see that Steve from Dundee
didn't really care for brexit then
actually a completely different context
there's a fundamental question about who
owns the data can a researcher have
ownership of data which is produced for
those non research purposes if the data
are being treated as published text
which is what is arguably allowing us to
collect it in this manner in the first
place
can it republished without attribution
to that original author can it be
anonymized can it be altered doing a
permission from them to publish it yet
alone to change it edit it actually how
would some of the social media platforms
themselves consider the intellectual
property of that content Twitter might
have one particular set of terms and
conditions but other platforms might
have different ideas about who owns that
data I mean just to go back a stage I
mean we're talking about pulsar and
other sort of other other companies that
sell the data the concept of ownership
their sort of complete complicate things
because it's not the respondent it's not
people we're researching who we're
paying to access the data its Twitter
and it's the social media platforms
themselves that might get access to that
get that money if we're collecting more
than that random 1% so again this sort
of complicates things and bringing in a
transactional element to it makes it
even more complex also quickly talk
about the blurring of boundaries so what
may be particularly novel for many
researchers is it that the space you're
researching within or of
maybe one in which you yourself operate
so your own tweets your own comments
might be picked up if you are part of a
network that you are researching so if I
take a random set of tweets as every
chance I'm not that prolific but you
know every chance that I'll be part of
that data set what does that mean for
objectivity for data quality and how I
interpret the data but that's probably
relatively unlikely but also it might be
someone that you know who is picked up
in the data set again those have the
same issues in terms of objectivity and
data quality but and actually it might
be okay on something like Facebook or
Twitter because you may if you know them
you may well be following them and
interacting them already but if you're
doing some research on a platform like
grinder or tinder that's completely
different context but completely
plausible and people's personal
sensitive information might be picked up
from you and that's quite ethically
challenging and there's very little you
can do to stop that happening also if
you're interacting online yourself that
means that you yourself the searchable
so how thinking about how you present
yourself online if you are in a forum if
you are operating in a Facebook group do
you create an alternative research
persona or do you use your own personal
account and what does that mean about
the power relationships between you and
the people you're researching how they
view you and if you've got your actual
name there then it doesn't matter
because they can go into Google you
anyway and find out a lot more
information about you and that
completely again changes the dynamics
and the relationships of of how you're
researching so there's a real blurring
of the professional and the personal
identities that are taking part in this
research this talks more I think to the
sort of quality elements of things but I
think that is still an important part of
ethical discussions so does everybody
have a fair an equal chance to have
their voice heard
so we're excluding people without web
access and without social media account
but also we're more likely to pick up
people who are really really vocal so
when you take that round in 1% it's not
a random
people to random 1% of tweets so
somebody who tweets a hundred times is a
hundred more times more likely than
somebody hearing you to be picked up
than someone here any tweets once and
what's that mean about bias in our
sample but will so what does that mean
ethically are we over representing the
views of some types of people relative
to the views of other people there's
also issues around verification so we've
talked a little bit about BOTS do we
know that it's a person do we know it's
an organization do we know that it's a
bot tweeting and how can we how can we
differentiate those and how we should
analyze those differently how do we know
that the people researching a part of
our target population that they are in
the UK that they are in Iran Iraq
wherever that we use the people we want
to be researching and also there's
something here about online and offline
identity there's an online identity or
an avatar count as a human subject where
there's an ethical onus so when somebody
before is in sort of a massive
multiplayer online role-playing game am
i researching the character or am i
researching the individual behind the
character and what does that mean for
ethics and typical ethical sort of ideas
of the of the person and who do you get
concert who do you get consent off of
who you getting consent from the
character of the person behind that you
also going to be picking out the
information about people's broader
networks so if I pick in a load of
Twitter data I don't just get the
information about that individual but I
get information about who retweets them
or who they are tweeting or who they're
applying to and that spreads out the
information beyond the actual research
subjects that you're looking at so one
of the programs I'm working on this look
out linking survey and social media day
- and I've got consent from the people
in the surveys to link those two
together I haven't got consent from
anyone else who they're connected to I'm
still going to pick up information about
those so it's only partially addressing
these problems and different types of
data all have different issues you know
numbers of retweets number of followers
think very basic metrics probably okay
but more detailed text data is going to
put bring up certain challenges but then
images videos are actually not even more
challenging first
because it's very difficult to
automatically identify and say these are
problematic these are not problematic if
you have things like images of children
and family members what are the ethics
of that I'll also mention derive
variables raw data public information
fine but as soon as you manipulate that
all assumes you're trying to extract
something that summarizes what's said in
that content that changes it and it's no
longer public data because you've
assumed some knowledge about a person
you might have so for example Facebook
there's lots of research using Facebook
and it takes the pages you like the
people we follow the type of text you
say and it will make summary judgments
about you and make summary judgments
about you whether you voted Republican
or Democrat they'll also make summary
judgments about your sexuality about
your all kinds of sense potentially
sensitive elements of your life that
that those people didn't make available
and didn't say that it was okay for you
to assume that about me and if those
algorithms deriving those
characteristics are any good which is
you know not necessary they're either
they're rubbish and shouldn't using them
or they're good and actually that
sensitive information you've just
extracted and made and made available at
an individual yeah so there are some
other things as well responsibility for
reporting abuse so if you do find
sensitive content online
what ethically is the role of the
researcher to then report that or
intervene in that situation how do these
interact with traditional methods legal
issues Terms of Service stuff sort of
touched on a little bit so yeah that's a
really quick whistle-stop tour in about
sort of twenty thirty minutes of some of
the issues there's a load resources here
that are really really good industry
guidelines are alright the University of
Aberdeen framework I think was set up
was done about six months a year ago and
there's a good sort of flow chart and
idea of what to look at the Lancaster
University Ethics forum was set up like
a couple of weeks ago and it's meant to
be a forum for discussing ethical issues
around social media data very very much
recommend
looking at that that since rapport
social media views is really good the
wisdom the crowd report as well has some
interesting discussion around ethics
there's this book coming up which will
be published relatively soon which
actively engages with discussions around
ethics um online research and the
handbook of social media research as
well as a reasonable amount of
information I can send links to like
loads of these if you want to get them
off me at the end of it thank you
[Applause]
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