After our launch of #Citizen Browser some folks have been asking Facebook to open up their data to researchers. That is, of course, something we would welcome. But I would like to point out that it would not be sufficient. /1

Journalists cannot rely on companies to provide cherry-picked data to them. We must independently verify data. For public companies, we inspect financial filings. For regulated industries, we seek health or environmental inspection reports. /2

Tech is a largely unregulated industry. There is no EPA or FAA that collects independent records about tech companies. Data that the companies release is at their own discretion & unverifiable.

That’s why tools like #CitizenBrowser that collect our own data are crucial. /3

There is a saying in journalism: “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”

So if Facebook provides me data, I’m still going to check it out. /end