Australian Internet Observatory launches pioneering national platform for digital research
Author ADM+S Centre
Date 23 September 2026
Australian researchers now have a new way to study the digital platforms shaping everyday life with the launch of a national self-service research infrastructure platform developed by the Australian Internet Observatory (AIO).
The new platform strengthens internet observability, transparency and accountability by helping researchers at Australian universities create and manage projects investigating digital platforms like TikTok, Instagram, ChatGPT, Netflix, Facebook and Spotify.
The AIO is led by RMIT University and Australian Research Data Commons and partners with several universities from Victoria and Queensland to provide national research infrastructure for digital-platform observability.
Designed for humanities and social sciences researchers, including those without advanced programming skills, the new platform initially supports data donation research using Data Download Packages – personal data archives which can be requested from social media, streaming, and other digital services.
“This platform will remove a significant practical barrier facing Australian researchers, during a time of heightened public and policy interest about the effects of digital services in Australia.” said Distinguished Professor and AIO Director Julian Thomas.
With informed consent, researchers can use relevant records to investigate questions that surveys, interviews, platform application programming interfaces and publicly visible content cannot fully answer.
Projects involving human participants or donated personal data still require institutional ethics approval before data collection begins, in line with the AIO’s ethics-first approach.
Potential research areas to be explored with the new platform include what digital content Australians consume, advertising and sponsored content, digital footprints, and how digital services influence culture, health, education and public debate.
“Data donation can show researchers much more than how an algorithm works. At scale, it can reveal patterns in how people use digital platforms and how these systems shape individual and collective experiences,” said Professor Daniel Angus, QUT AIO Partner Lead and Chief Investigator at the ADM+S.
Researchers at Australian universities can use their institutional credentials to gain access to relevant tools, data downloads, resources and training on the AIO Platform to assist with their projects.
The Australian Internet Observatory provides national research infrastructure for digital-platform observability, delivered by RMIT University, Queensland University of Technology, The University of Queensland, the University of Melbourne, Swinburne University of Technology and Deakin University.
The Australian Internet Observatory was established in 2024 to develop research platforms, datacollection tools and methods, data-governance resources, training and collaborative networks to support ethical, rigorous and public-interest research into digital platforms and emerging technologies.
The Australian Internet Observatory is a co-investment partnership with the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) through the HASS and Indigenous Research Data Commons (DOI: 10.3565/hjrp-b141). The ARDC is enabled by the Australian Government’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS).
AIO is an initiative of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision Making + Society.
