Instagram

Report March 2026

Submitted
Commitment 26
Relevant Signatories commit to provide access, wherever safe and practicable, to continuous, real-time or near real-time, searchable stable access to non-personal data and anonymised, aggregated, or manifestly-made public data for research purposes on Disinformation through automated means such as APIs or other open and accessible technical solutions allowing the analysis of said data.
We signed up to the following measures of this commitment
Measure 26.1 Measure 26.2 Measure 26.3
In line with this commitment, did you deploy new implementation measures (e.g. changes to your terms of service, new tools, new policies, etc)?
Yes
If yes, list these implementation measures here
As mentioned in our previous reports, Meta rolled out the Content Library and API tools to provide access to near real-time public content on Instagram. Details about the content, such as the number of reactions, shares, comments and, for the first time, post view counts are also available. Researchers can search, explore and filter that content on a graphical User Interface (UI) or through a programmatic API. 

Together, these tools provide comprehensive access to publicly-accessible content across Facebook and Instagram.

Individuals, including journalists, affiliated with qualified institutions pursuing scientific or public interest research topics can apply for access to these tools through partners with deep expertise in secure data sharing for research, starting with the University of Michigan’s Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. This was a first-of-its-kind partnership that enabled researchers to analyse data from the API in ICPSR’s Social Media Archives (SOMAR) Virtual Data Enclave.


Furthermore, in December 2025, Meta launched a partnership with the Secure Data Access Center (CASD, Le Centre d’Accès Sécurisé aux Données), an organization renowned for facilitating responsible data access for researchers worldwide. As part of our collaboration, CASD independently reviews research proposals to access Meta Content Library. We also launched a new Meta-hosted application portal, Research Tools Manager to enhance the onboarding and support experience for both new applicants and existing researchers.

In addition, researchers also now are able to choose between accessing the Meta Content LIbrary API on the SOMAR Virtual Data Enclave or on the Meta Secure Research Environment (formerly known as Researcher Platform).

Note that ICPSR no longer reviews Meta Content Library applications as of December 2025, but they continue to host the Meta Content Library API in the SOMAR Virtual Data Enclave.

Additionally, we made updates to the Meta Research Tools Terms and Conditions.

Meta continues to publish reports with relevant data regarding content on Instagram via its Transparency Centre. We’ve shared our 2025 reports there: 
Do you plan to put further implementation measures in place in the next 6 months to substantially improve the maturity of the implementation of this commitment?
Yes
If yes, which further implementation measures do you plan to put in place in the next 6 months?
We continue to, and are in process of adding new features and functionality to Meta Content Library, including  improvements to the application processes for access to the research tools. In addition to this, we regularly seek feedback from the research community for critical updates. 
Measure 26.1
Relevant Signatories will provide public access to non-personal data and anonymised, aggregated or manifestly-made public data pertinent to undertaking research on Disinformation on their services, such as engagement and impressions (views) of content hosted by their services, with reasonable safeguards to address risks of abuse (e.g. API policies prohibiting malicious or commercial uses).
Instagram
QRE 26.1.1
Relevant Signatories will describe the tools and processes in place to provide public access to non-personal data and anonymised, aggregated and manifestly-made public data pertinent to undertaking research on Disinformation, as well as the safeguards in place to address risks of abuse.
As mentioned in our baseline report, we publish a wide range of regular reports on our Transparency Centre including to give our community visibility into how we enforce our policies or respond to some requests: https://transparency.fb.com/data/. We also publish extensive reports on our findings about coordinated behaviour in our newsroom and we have a dedicated public website hosting our Ad Library tools.
QRE 26.1.2
Relevant Signatories will publish information related to data points available via Measure 26.1, as well as details regarding the technical protocols to be used to access these data points, in the relevant help centre. This information should also be reachable from the Transparency Centre. At minimum, this information will include definitions of the data points available, technical and methodological information about how they were created, and information about the representativeness of the data.
Ad Library Tools: The dedicated website for the Ad Library allows users to search all of the ads currently running across Meta technologies. All ads that are currently running on Meta technologies show: the ad content; the basic information, such as when the ad started running and which advertiser is running it. For the ads that have run anywhere in the European Union in the past year, it includes additional transparency specific to the EU. Regarding Ads about social issues, elections or politics that have run in the past seven years, it shows: the ad content, the basic information, such as when the ad started running and which advertiser is running it and additional transparency about spend, reach and funding entities.

As mentioned in our baseline report, we publish on our Transparency Centre numerous reports:
 
  • Community Standards Enforcement Report: We publish this report publicly in our Transparency Centre on a quarterly basis to more effectively track our progress and demonstrate our continued commitment to making our services safe and inclusive. The report shares metrics on how we are doing at preventing and taking action on content that goes against our Community Standards (against 12 policies on Instagram). 

  • Adversarial Threat Report: We share publicly our findings about coordinated inauthentic behaviour (CIB) and other networks we detect and remove from our platforms. As part of our Adversarial Threat Reports, we publish information about networks we take down to make it easier for people to see progress we’re making in one place.
SLI 26.1.1
Relevant Signatories will provide quantitative information on the uptake of the tools and processes described in Measure 26.1, such as number of users.
As of 31 December 2025, over 1,200 researchers globally had access to Meta Content Library user interface and/or programmatic API.