Data Sharing to Foster Information as a Public Good: The Case of Media Viability and Safety of Journalists in the Digital Ecosystem

"Trends towards greater transparency of platforms, in the form of extending cooperation around data, offer benefit to the interests of all stakeholders."



This brief, published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as part of the World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development series, addresses the complex issue of data sharing by digital platforms on the basis that such data sharing will benefit the strengthening of information as a public good. It examines recent trends in and challenges to data sharing between media stakeholders and online platforms, specifically considering the potential impact on media viability and the safety of journalists. Drawing from expert insight and consultations, it delineates clear data asks, possible uses, and benefits for all involved stakeholders, and it offers recommendations moving forward.



As explained in the brief, platform "transparency" can range from minimum to maximum and can include:

• Providing certain information as a matter of course (e.g., policy documents such as terms of service and their permitted content types and user behaviours);
• ƒProactively making periodic disclosures, such as through transparency reports with statistics on issues (e.g., identified orchestrated manipulation efforts) and through commercial filings that include assessments of legal or reputational risks;
• Responding to queries from stakeholders, including users, journalists, researchers, and officials;ƒ
• Publishing some of their internal research and giving data access to stakeholders, such as external researchers who publish their output in scholarly reports or journals;ƒ and
• Allowing access to identified (and privacy-compliant) datasets (through narrow or wider "hosepipes"), such as by means of application programming onterfaces (APIs), "sandboxed" databases, and "safe rooms".

The policy brief considers the normative, institutional, and technical mechanisms that support access to datasets that are not accessible generally but have public interest value. The analysis maps the general trends and issues, and then it proceeds to assess the separate cases of journalists' safety and media viability.



The findings, as highlighted in the report, include:

• Trends in access to data are mixed, but they allow for progress in datasharing by digital platforms.
• Harnessing defined data from platforms can advance public interest in many ways, but specifically also in regard to two distinct issues: (i) protecting journalists online and (ii) supporting the economic viability of independent news media.
• With regard to protecting journalists, data cooperation can feed platforms' wider human rights risk assessments, as well as joint efforts with others to support online safety for journalists.
• Data-sharing arrangements can have value for all parties involved. For instance, data on content and user elements could inform outlets' strategies to better reach and engage their audience. Similarly, information on the volume and format of threats targeting journalists and how companies respond could inform platforms' risk assessments and preemptive actions to improve journalist safety.
• Protections for personal privacy, data security, and a critical approach to data are key features of any such arrangements.

The report notes that despite challenges faced in achieving increased platform transparency in recent years, current trends indicate potential for greater data sharing. For example, the UNESCO Guidelines for the Governance of Digital Platforms (see Related Summaries, below) have spurred policy debate on regulation in the interest of information as a public good.



The following are key recommendations outlined in the brief:

• ƒStakeholders with an interest in journalists' safety and/or media viability should focus in on specific data asks for each topic and frame their motivations on the basis that such access will benefit the strengthening of information as a public good.
• Good-faith dialogues are encouraged between platforms and the respective representatives of potential users of data for safety and viability.
• Data relationships for strengthening the safety of journalists should include the aim of developing shared metrics, informing human rights risk assessments, and assessing related mitigations.
• For media viability, platforms and news publishers should explore mutual benefits from experiments in data sharing and/or pooling, as well as in analysis and use of mutual data.
• Pilot partnerships between willing actors should be tested in specific cases, such as the safety of journalists during elections or media viability in relation to AI applications.
• All parties should help promote both (i) data literacy as the ability to recognise and act on the opportunities, risks, skills, laws, and mechanisms at stake in data sharing and (ii) the importance of data to safety and viability.