Show us what’s viral: A request to platforms to share the most viewed posts in the EU
Platforms have long tried to avoid scrutiny. In 2023, X (formerly Twitter) tried to drag us through the courts for doing independent research with public data. We fought back because we believe that when powerful platforms shape the information environment we live in, the public deserves to know what’s being amplified and how.
On the 3rd of October 2025, CCDH alongside AlgorithmWatch, DSA 40 Data Access Collaboratory, Mozilla Foundation, and other civil society groups, is asking the largest platforms for something simple and essential: a list of the most-viewed posts so our researchers can better understand what’s saturating our feeds.
Why this matters to our work
You can’t fix what you can’t see. If we don’t know what’s being pushed to millions of users, it’s difficult to spot harms in real-time or test whether platform interventions work. As laid out in CCDH’s STAR framework, accountability is only effective if a baseline of transparency is established. A simple “most-viewed” list is the floor for meaningful oversight of recommender systems.
The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) is explicitly designed to break Big Tech opacity and revolutionize researcher access to public data. But platforms are already pushing back. This is why we’re joining forces for this request, based on Article 40(12) of the DSA, for basic, public data.
What happens in the EU will set the tone globally. If platforms succeed in blunting DSA data access, emerging frameworks like the UK’s forthcoming data-access proposals will be weakened from the outset. We’re making a stand now so researchers can continue to make use of their right to data access.
What we’re asking platforms to give us access to
The top 1,000 most-viewed public posts per platform, per EU member state, covering an initial six-month window, delivered in a simple, consistent format so researchers can use it immediately.
This is already public-facing content, aggregated and ranked. Allowing researchers access to this data to shed light on systemic risks benefits everyone; users who deserve transparency, policymakers who need evidence to make better laws, and platforms that want to demonstrate their systems are safe.
Our commitment
CCDH will always defend the public’s right to know how platforms shape the online environment. That means standing up to legal intimidation and building the evidence base that helps the public understand the increasingly digital world they live in. This request furthers that purpose. It’s basic transparency that makes people safer.
If platforms are committed to transparency, showing the most-seen posts should be the easiest “yes” they’ll give all year.
Join CCDH and help us push for transparency to create a safer internet for all.