The lessons outlined above should be carefully considered when evaluating partnerships with social media platforms. Table 1 Overview of key challenges in industry-academy collaborations for social media, lessons learned from other industries, and avenues for action. Full size tableThe first challenge is restrictive data access, which is unique to social media platforms. However, when it comes to social media products, access to their “ingredients,” such as algorithms and input data, is limited. The phenomenon of big tech funding social science research is relatively new, meaning that many social scientists are inexperienced in dealing with industry entanglements.

Source: Washington Post February 13, 2026 08:54 UTC