This week, Facebook is embarking on a striking new experiment with the Social Science Research Council – an American non-profit organisation that supports research into disciplines such as psychology, sociology and anthropology.

Several months ago, the Silicon Valley tech giant announced that it would let academics request access to data on its two billion users, under the guidance of the SSRC and a new, independent academic group called Social Science One. This represents the first properly controlled, peer-reviewed research framework using Facebook data. (Although some academics have used social media data before, it was done in an ad hoc manner.)

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“We are obsessed with privacy,” says Nathaniel Persily, co-head of Social Science One. “We know that everyone is looking at this project to see whether privacy-protected data can be made available to social scientists in a way that doesn’t repeat the problems of the past.” As the project website notes: “Facebook and our funding partners recognise the threat presented by the misuse of Facebook data, including by an academic associated with Cambridge Analytica.”