According to the Social Science Research Council, a consortium of foundations funding an initiative to study the role Facebook plays in elections and democracy is recommending winding down the project because the social media giant has not provided the necessary data to researchers.

Launched in April 2018 with funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, in partnership with the Arnold, Charles Koch, Children's Investment Fund, Knight, and Sloan foundations; the Democracy Fund; and Omidyar Network — and in collaboration with Facebook, Social Science One, and SSRC — the initiative aims to fill research gaps in the academic literature on social media, political polarization, and political disinformation and, at the same time, address the need for data access.

In a letter to SSRC, which is managing the proposal selection and peer-review processes for the projects, the funders said "[i]t now seems clear the technical and legal complexities associated with making proprietary data available to independent scholars are greater than any of the parties originally understood, and Facebook has as a result been unable to deliver all the data initially anticipated."

"The eighty-three independent scholars whose proposals were selected for funding have access to only a portion of what they were told they could expect," the consortium added, "and this has made it difficult or, in some cases, impossible for them to complete the approved research. Nor can Facebook or its privacy and security advisory committees yet offer a definitive timetable for when the full set of proposed data can be made available."

While Facebook has informed the consortium that "it plans to continue working to resolve the technical issues and legal questions that have hindered broader data access," the funders recommend that SSRC pause its RFP process "unless and until more data become available." They also suggest that if the social media giant cannot provide the agreed-upon data by September 30, the council should take steps to wind down the project by the end of the year. The consortium will continue to fund the work until year-end, the letter states, and "[s]ome or all of us may be willing to consider extending or reinitiating this support, including funds for regranting to scholars, if new data of sufficient import and value become available."

In a statement, SSRC said grants to currently funded researchers will be paid out in full, and that if the "URL shares" data specified in the agreement is not available by September 30, recently approved grants will be paid out on the condition that researchers can complete their work with currently available data.

According to Reuters, Facebook has issued a statement saying it remains committed to the project and would "continue to provide access to data and tooling to all grant recipients — current and future."