The Social Media Archive (SOMAR) is a revolutionary initiative and data resource that makes social media data accessible and useful to researchers like never before. Research is showing that social media data is becoming some of the most consequential information in contemporary society. From the emotional well-being of local youth to the outcomes of global political processes, social media play a critical, but poorly understood, role in socio-political life. Social media platforms contain a treasure trove of information that can help us better understand human behavior, social systems, and psychological processes. Housed in the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), which strives to maintain the highest standards of data quality and integrity, SOMAR provides a centralized and reliable repository for social media research data.

The archive contains a wide range of data collected from large-scale social media platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit, as well as smaller, more specialized data sets focused on specific research topics. These data sets have been collected and curated by researchers from around the world, and they cover various topics such as political communication, online behavior, and social networks. The data in our archive takes two forms. They can be public, i.e., available for immediate download, and/or restricted, i.e., available within our secure data enclave after receiving approval following a submitted restricted data application.