DRI and GFF have achieved an important partial success today in their case against the social media platform X. In its final decision,the Berlin Regional Court confirmed during the oral hearing that DRI was entitled to assert its claim for access to research data against X in Berlin and did not need to file suit in Ireland,where X has its European Headquarters.
This lays the groundwork for researchers to effectively enforce their right to access research data under the Digital Services Act (DSA) in the jurisdictions where they are registered. This represents a strengthening of academic freedom and its enforceability.
While the Berlin Court affirmed that researchers have a right to access data from social media platforms,it rejected DRI’s request to X due to a lack of urgency.
X had refused to provide DRI with publicly accessible data—such as reach,number of likes,and shares of posts—related to the German federal election in February 2025. The organisation intended to use this data for a large-scale,systematic analysis of online risks to the election,including election interference,with the overall aim of increasing transparency and platform accountability in the digital space.
The aim of the proceedings was to enforce a new legal provision of the DSA that grants a right to access research data (Article 40(12) DSA). This provision obliges large online platforms to grant researchers immediate access to publicly available data on their platforms to enable the investigation of systemic risks.
“The decision is a crucial step towards platform transparency. It confirms that researchers can tu to their national courts when platforms deny access to data or make it difficult to research data. This makes the DSA more relevant and actionable in the real world,” said Michael Meyer-Resende,Executive Director at DRI.
“Hate speech online,disinformation,and election interference—research is one of the tools we use to examine and combat these dangers on platforms. With today’s decision,we have achieved the important clarification that we were entitled to file suit here and have paved the way for further claims to access research data,” said Simone Ruf,litigation coordinator at GFF.
The written judgment is not yet available.
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