We’re thrilled to announce our partnership with Reddit to help build Reddit for Research, a program that will enable academic researchers to study online communities while protecting user privacy.
About Reddit for Research
Reddit recognizes the immense value that academic researchers bring to our collective understanding of online behavior and community dynamics. Through Reddit for Research, they aim to preserve access to Reddit content for researchers while ensuring responsible, non-commercial use of Reddit data.
Our Role
OpenMined will work closely with Reddit to develop privacy-preserving infrastructure that enables researchers to analyze Reddit data while maintaining strong privacy guarantees. This builds on our experience implementing similar frameworks with other platforms and research institutions through projects like the Christchurch Call Initiative.
We’ll help Reddit:
- Design and implement privacy-enhancing technologies for data access
- Create secure environments for research computation
- Develop tools that balance analytical power with privacy protection
- Support the growing community of researchers at r/reddit4researchers
Why This Matters
This partnership represents an important step forward in demonstrating how platforms can support academic research while respecting user privacy. By implementing robust privacy-preserving technologies, we can help Reddit achieve its goal of enabling valuable research while maintaining its commitment to user privacy and safety.
What’s Next
We’re in the early stages of this exciting collaboration, but we look forward to working with Reddit’s team to develop the technical infrastructure and engaging with the research community to understand their needs.
We believe this partnership will set new standards for how platforms can safely enable researcher access. Stay tuned for updates as we begin this journey. Researchers interested in participating can join r/reddit4researchers to learn more and get involved.