Ethics, social media research, and users views

Summary

The 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

• 🤖 The ethics of social media research is a complex and evolving field with no single right answer, and opinions vary widely among researchers.
• 🔍 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.
• 📊 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.
• 📝 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.
• 🔑 The characteristics of social media platforms create unique ethical challenges that traditional research ethics frameworks do not fully address.
• 🏛 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.
• 👥 The diversity of social media platforms and the evolving nature of their features and terms of service complicate the establishment of consistent ethical guidelines.
• 🔒 Ethical considerations include data security, confidentiality, and the challenges of anonymizing inherently personal social media data.
• 📜 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.
• 📝 Informed consent is a central issue in social media research, with questions about the adequacy of terms and conditions as a form of consent.
• 🏷 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

00:00

🤔 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.

05:00

🔍 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.

10:02

🏛 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.

15:04

🔒 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.

20:04

📝 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.

25:05

🌐 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.

Keywords

💡Ethics

Ethics refers to the moral principles that govern a person's or group's behavior. In the context of the video, ethics is central to the discussion on how social media data should be used for research purposes. The script raises questions about the morality of using publicly available data without explicit consent and the potential ethical implications of such actions.

💡Social Media Research

Social Media Research is the study of social media platforms and the data generated by users on these platforms. The video discusses the complexities of conducting ethical social media research, including issues of consent, anonymity, and the public versus private nature of social media content.

💡Informed Consent

Informed consent is a principle where participants in research are fully informed about the study and voluntarily agree to participate. The script questions the adequacy of informed consent in social media research, especially when users agree to terms and conditions without fully understanding how their data may be used.

💡Data Protection Act

The Data Protection Act is legislation designed to protect personal information. The script mentions this Act in the context of whether it applies to social media data and the implications for researchers collecting and analyzing such data.

💡Public Space vs. Private Space

The script debates whether social media platforms are public or private spaces, which has legal and ethical implications for data collection. It discusses the expectation of being observed and how this affects the ethics of social media research.

💡Anonymity

Anonymity refers to the state of being unidentified or unknown. The video discusses the challenge of maintaining anonymity in social media research, given that data is inherently personal and can potentially be traced back to individuals, even after anonymization efforts.

💡Data Security and Confidentiality

Data security and confidentiality involve protecting data from unauthorized access and ensuring it is kept secret. The script raises concerns about how to securely handle social media data in research, especially considering the personal nature of the information.

💡Right to be Forgotten

The 'Right to be Forgotten' is a concept that allows individuals to request the removal of their personal data from the internet. The video discusses the challenges of this right in the context of social media research, where deleted posts may still exist in collected datasets.

💡Data Ownership

Data ownership pertains to who has the rights to the data. The script explores the complexities of data ownership in social media research, questioning whether researchers can own data that was not originally produced for research purposes.

💡Blurring Boundaries

Blurring boundaries refers to the merging of professional and personal identities in social media research. The video discusses how researchers' own social media activity might influence their objectivity and the dynamics of the research relationship.

💡Bias

Bias in research refers to systemic errors caused by using a non-representative sample or by researchers' personal perspectives. The script touches on the potential for bias in social media research, where vocal users may be overrepresented due to the nature of data collection methods.

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]