Social Media Data in a Post-API Age

the SMDPA project will develop a tool that will allow the gathering of data from platforms where API access is not available or is dwindling. Specifically, we seek to mirror and expand the capabilities of the currently-functioning, soon to be disbanded CrowdTangle service which allow for the collection of post-level data from Facebook Pages (the type of presences that are typically curated by companies and organizations – not personal profiles), as well as the collection of similar data from open Instagram profiles. Beyond gaining access to these types of data, the SMDPA project will build on previous work (Larsen, 2021) and secure access to content posted on Instagram featuring certain hashtags. Hashtags can perhaps easiest be described as thematic keywords included by users to signal relevance for a specific theme. Using hashtags as a selection criterion for empirical data increases the relevance of the data (Moe and Larsson, 2012) and decreases the ethical considerations that often come to the fore when collecting empirical materials (Bainotti et al, 2020).