The Platform Accountability and Transparency Act creates a federal research program that allows independent scholars to access data from major social media platforms (those with 50 million or more U.S. users) to study their societal impacts, with the National Science Foundation and Federal Trade Commission overseeing privacy protections through encryption, anonymization, and strict enforcement against misuse. The bill grants journalists and researchers a legal safe harbor to collect publicly available platform data without facing lawsuits for violating terms of service, provided they protect user privacy and conduct research in the public interest. It also requires the FTC to issue regulations within one year mandating that platforms publicly disclose detailed information about political advertisements, how their algorithms rank content (updated twice yearly), and content moderation statistics through searchable tools and APIs. Platforms and researchers that violate these requirements face civil penalties, potential criminal referrals, and attorney fee liability, while the FTC retains authority to withhold sensitive user information, trade secrets, and security details to protect privacy and platform safety.
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