Every day, billions of people scroll through social media. But which posts go viral — and disproportionately shape what we see, think, and talk about?
The absurd truth: we don’t know.
Only social media companies know which posts dominate our feeds. Without this transparency, election disinformation can spread unchecked. Violent content can go viral with little oversight. And when the next crisis hits, the public is left in the dark once again.
That’s why Mozilla Foundation made a simple request to YouTube, Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, and X: share the top 1,000 most-viewed public posts per EU country.
These are public posts that have already been seen, in some cases, by millions. It’s not rocket science — just a list of viral posts.
But so far, every single platform has refused.
Platforms clearly think they can ignore a basic transparency request, but public pressure can prove them wrong.
Add your name now to demand that platforms — including YouTube, Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, and X — share their most-viewed content.
— Campaign launched by Mozilla Foundation, AlgorithmWatch, and researchers across Europe.
What we asked of platforms — and how they responded
Together with AlgorithmWatch and researchers across Europe, Mozilla Foundation made a formal request to YouTube, Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, and X:
Share the top 1,000 most-viewed public posts on their platforms, per EU member state.
These are posts that have already been seen — in some cases, by millions. Content that’s already public. These are the posts that algorithms amplify most, revealing what’s actually shaping public discourse online.
We made this request clearly, collectively, and in good faith. The first request went out on October 3, 2025.
But so far, none of the companies have agreed:
- LinkedIn, YouTube, Meta, and X responded and declined.
- TikTok says they’re considering it, but their response is already well past our reasonable timeline.
Read more about this request in our blog post: Request for Basic Data.
Why this matters
We believe society has a right to basic transparency from social media platforms, starting with the most viewed content.
Every day, EU citizens consume a vast stream of content on the largest platforms, shaping what they think and do.
The most viewed content in this stream is, by its nature, extremely public. And, as you’d expect, it accounts for a large share of activity on platforms, with a study of a random sample from YouTube finding that 94% of views came from just 4% of videos. But — absurdly — we don’t know what this most viewed content is, because social media platforms don’t share lists of it.
That means we’re missing a critical tool to understand how these platforms are influencing society, and to monitor harmful content in a timely way. For instance, experts can’t quickly catch a hostile campaign to influence an election, or a viral trend that’s harming kids, or a health scam gaining dangerous reach in the EU.
The lack of basic data around this content also makes it harder to assess platforms’ recommender systems, since to better understand them we need to know the content they amplify most.