research-article

Navigating the Post-API Dilemma

Authors:

Tim WeningerAuthors Info & Claims

WWW '24: Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2024

Pages 2476 - 2484

https://doi.org/10.1145/3589334.3645503

Published: 13 May 2024 Publication History

Abstract

Recent decisions to discontinue access to social media APIs are having detrimental effects on Internet research and the field of computational social science as a whole. This lack of access to data has been dubbed the Post-API era of Internet research. Fortunately, popular search engines have the means to crawl, capture, and surface social media data on their Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) if provided the proper search query, and may provide a solution to this dilemma. In the present work we ask: does SERP provide a complete and unbiased sample of social media data? Is SERP a viable alternative to direct API-access? To answer these questions, we perform a comparative analysis between (Google) SERP results and nonsampled data from Reddit and Twitter/X. We find that SERP results are highly biased in favor of popular posts; against political, pornographic, and vulgar posts; are more positive in their sentiment; and have large topical gaps. Overall, we conclude that SERP is not a viable alternative to social media API access.

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Cited By

Almeida APatton TConway MGupta AStrathdee SBórquez A(2024)The Use of Natural Language Processing Methods in Reddit to Investigate Opioid Use: Scoping ReviewJMIR Infodemiology10.2196/511564(e51156)Online publication date: 13-Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.2196/51156
Failla ARossetti G(2024)“I’m in the Bluesky Tonight”: Insights from a year worth of social dataPLOS ONE10.1371/journal.pone.031033019:11(e0310330)Online publication date: 5-Nov-2024
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0310330
Wu V(2024)Leveraging computational methods for nonprofit social media research: a systematic review and methodological frameworkJournal of Chinese Governance10.1080/23812346.2024.23650089:3(303-327)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/23812346.2024.2365008

Index Terms

Navigating the Post-API Dilemma
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing
2. Information systems
  1. Information systems applications
    1. Collaborative and social computing systems and tools
  2. World Wide Web
    1. Web searching and information discovery

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

WWW '24: Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2024

May 2024

4826 pages

ISBN:9798400701719

DOI:10.1145/3589334

General Chairs:
Tat-Seng Chua
National University of Singapore
,
Chong-Wah Ngo
Singapore Management University
,
Proceedings Chair:
Roy Ka-Wei Lee
Singapore University of Technology and Design
,
Program Chairs:
Ravi Kumar
Google
,
Hady W. Lauw
Singapore Management University

Copyright © 2024 ACM.

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Published: 13 May 2024

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WWW '24: The ACM Web Conference 2024

May 13 - 17, 2024

Singapore, Singapore

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Cited By

Almeida APatton TConway MGupta AStrathdee SBórquez A(2024)The Use of Natural Language Processing Methods in Reddit to Investigate Opioid Use: Scoping ReviewJMIR Infodemiology10.2196/511564(e51156)Online publication date: 13-Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.2196/51156
Failla ARossetti G(2024)“I’m in the Bluesky Tonight”: Insights from a year worth of social dataPLOS ONE10.1371/journal.pone.031033019:11(e0310330)Online publication date: 5-Nov-2024
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0310330
Wu V(2024)Leveraging computational methods for nonprofit social media research: a systematic review and methodological frameworkJournal of Chinese Governance10.1080/23812346.2024.23650089:3(303-327)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/23812346.2024.2365008

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