The Accountability Paradox: How Platform API Restrictions Undermine AI Transparency Mandates

Recent application programming interface (API) restrictions on major social media platforms challenge compliance with the EU Digital Services Act [16], which mandates data access for algorithmic transparency. We develop a structured audit framework to assess the growing misalignment between regulatory requirements and platform implementation. Our comparative analysis of X/Twitter, Reddit, TikTok, and Meta identifies critical “audit blind-spots” where platform content moderation and algorithmic amplification remain inaccessible to independent verification.