Indiana University Network Science Institute

CrowdTangle Dashboard and Data Access Policy

Scope

All agents of the university who wish to access the CrowdTangle dashboard and API

Policy Statement

As part of Indiana University’s collaboration with the Knight Foundation, the Observatory on Social Media has been granted access to the CrowdTangle dashboard and associated tools for monitoring Facebook and Instagram.

The CrowdTangle dashboard is available to employees of Indiana University via the CrowdTangle web interface. To access this system, users must follow the application process described by this document. Users of the CrowdTangle data must handle the data in a manner consistent with CrowdTangle’s ‘Terms of Service’.

Reason for Policy

The CrowdTangle dashboard service has been provided to Indiana University by CrowdTangle Inc. and is being used to support numerous research projects across the IU system. Consequently, it is imperative that all users of the data comply with the necessary policies required by CrowdTangle Inc. to insure continued access to the data for IU researchers.

Additionally, the data accessible via the CrowdTangle dashboard contains personally identifiable information which could potentially be used to target individuals or groups of Facebook or Instagram users. Although all the data accessible from the application is publicly available, the aggregation of the data is not. As a result, users should be aware of how this type of aggregated social media data could be used to negatively impact the users of these social media services. Dashboard users have a responsibility to protect social media users as well as Indiana University from abuses of the service.

Procedures

1. Application
   1. Individuals wishing to use the CrowdTangle application must be employees of the Trustees of Indiana University
   2. Prospective users must complete the application form located at: https://iuni.iu.edu/resources/datasets/osome/crowdtangle-access-request
   3. The IUNI Data Manager will review completed applications.
   4. It is the intention of the IUNI team to make the data available to all eligible applicants to support research at Indiana University.
   5. Approved applicants will be assigned a new team within the IU account and sent connection information by OSoMe staff.
2. Data Management
   1. The data has been classified as ‘University Internal’ by the Indiana University Committee of Data Stewards. Users of the data must follow the standards outlined in University policy DM-01 for the handling of University Internal data.
   2. Users must also comply with the CrowdTangle Terms of Service. Copies of the document can be found here: https://www.crowdtangle.com/terms
   3. Data extracted from the CrowdTangle interface should not be shared with individuals or groups outside the University.

Definitions

• IUNI: The Indiana University Network Science Institute (iuni.iu.edu).
• Eligible Employees: Persons with a professional affiliation with Indiana University as either faculty or staff (as defined in DM-01).
• Data Manager: An employee of IUNI who conducts day-to-day administration of applications to the OSoMe data and supports researchers in accessing the data. The Data Manager serves as the single point of contact for all issues regarding the ‘Moe’s Tavern’ interface (See https://datamgmt.iu.edu/governance/structure.php for more details).
• OSoMe – CrowdTangle subscription: The application provided by CrowdTangle Inc. accessible at crowdtangle.com.
• OSoMe Research Team: A group of IT professionals and academic researchers who maintain and manage the OSoMe project

Sanctions

Indiana University will handle reports of misuse and abuse of information and information technology resources in accordance with existing policies and procedures issued by appropriate authorities. Depending on the individual and circumstances involved this could include the offices of Human Resources, Vice Provost or Vice Chancellor of Faculties (or campus equivalent), Dean of Students (or campus equivalent), Office of the General Counsel, and/or appropriate law enforcement agencies. See policy IT-02, Misuse and Abuse of Information Technology Resources for more detail.

Failure to comply with Indiana University information technology policies may result in sanctions relating to the individual's use of information technology resources (such as suspension or termination of access, or removal of online material); the individual's employment (up to and including immediate termination of employment in accordance with applicable university policy); the individual's studies within the university (such as student discipline in accordance with applicable university policy); civil or criminal liability; or any combination of these.

Additional Contacts

Forms

If you are interested in accessing the OSoMe-CrowdTangle account please complete the application for here: https://iuni.iu.edu/resources/datasets/osome/crowdtangle-access-request

History

This is the first iteration of the OSoMe-Twitter data access policy.