Brazil has the lowest level of transparency in social media data access among 15 platforms evaluated in the European Union, the United Kingdom and Brazil, according to a new study by NetLab UFRJ, a research center at Rio de Janeiro's Federal University, and the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
The report, titled "Data Not Found: Social Media Transparency for Information Integrity," examined how much access researchers, oversight bodies and civil society have to public content data and advertising data on major platforms.
The researchers found that in most cases, access to essential data is blocked or severely restricted. They said this widespread opacity creates conditions favorable to democratic backsliding, since it makes it harder to trace disinformation networks, and to financial fraud, since it prevents independent audits of the advertising market.
Brazil leads digital opacity
The study concluded that transparency among major technology companies is not voluntary but is driven by legal requirements. The European Union and the United Kingdom have stricter rules, including the EU's Digital Services Act, while Brazil consistently showed the lowest levels of data access of the three regions studied.
Meta and messaging apps fall short
Meta offers a "Significant" level of access to advertising data in the United Kingdom, but its transparency for user-generated content in Brazil was rated "Insignificant," the study found. Researchers said the company limits its data to its own Content Library tool, which prevents independent large-scale analysis.
Widely used apps in Brazil, including TikTok, Kwai, WhatsApp, Discord and Threads, keep their advertising or content data classified as "Unavailable" for public monitoring in the country, according to the report.
Bluesky and YouTube lead, X falls short
Only Bluesky and YouTube received a "Significant" and consistent rating for programmatic access, through APIs, to public content data across all three regions, the study found.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, access to content data is technically available, but the fees charged make independent research unviable, the researchers said. They also found that most advertising repositories run by major technology companies do not allow detailed keyword searches or provide precise data on who was targeted by a given ad.
Calls for new regulation
NetLab UFRJ and the University of Cambridge called for coordinated action across sectors, including new regional transparency laws in Brazil, international protocols for data interoperability, and mechanisms to reduce the gap in rights between Brazilian and European users.
