As Researchers are Sidelined and Silenced, Society Loses its Understanding of Technology Shaping Our Lives

The 2025 Coalition for Independent Technology Research report calls for action to treat public-interest tech research as essential public infrastructure - on par with public health and education

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 19, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Coalition for Independent Technology Research (CITR) today released its inaugural report "The State of Independent Technology Research 2025: Power in Numbers," showing how the collapse of support for public-interest research is a threat to not only the researchers behind the work, but people's deeper understanding of the technology shaping their everyday lives. The report serves as both an accountability check on the tech industry and a call to arms for researchers.

From shrinking funding and institutional censorship to legal threats, harassment and surveillance, the report is a glaring signal that the public infrastructure needed to study technology's impact is under attack. This comes at a time when trillion-dollar technology companies have outsized influence on how we learn, work, communicate and govern. While their power grows, the resources to study their impact and hold them accountable have dissipated.

"The gap between what these companies are worth and what we as a society invest to understand their impact is staggering," said Brandi Geurkink, Executive Director of the Coalition for Independent Technology Research. "What we are witnessing is the dismantling of the independent checks we need on the most powerful technologies in human history. This is dangerous for our society and democracy."

Independent research is a cornerstone of any modern healthy, free society. It helps people understand the opaque technical systems shaping their lives and gives consumers, policymakers and communities the information they need to make informed choices about technology. Without it, we are moving, quickly, into a future driven by technologies we barely understand and lack critical information on.

The report surveyed independent researchers behind some of the most important tech accountability stories—from harms to children's mental health, to algorithmic bias, to AI's risks to labor and civil rights—and found they are often underfunded, lacking infrastructure, and exposed to risk. The report draws on dozens of interviews, surveys, and case studies from across six continents to document an unprecedented crisis facing independent technology research. While this level of pressure on researchers is new in the tech sector, it echoes long-standing patterns seen in fields like climate science, chemical safety, and tobacco, where independent inquiry has historically clashed with powerful commercial interests.

Key Findings: These statistics signal the systematic erosion of independent oversight over the most powerful technologies in human history.

• Barriers to Information: Researchers report barriers to accessing the data essential for studying how technology affects society.

• • 60% face barriers accessing the data essential for studying how technology affects society

• Funding Collapse: Philanthropy and public funding are insufficient in comparison to industry-dominated research agendas and funding, leaving critical areas unstudied.

• • 85% of researchers identify funding as their most significant challenge, with many forced to choose between research independence and financial survival

• Retaliation and Risk: Researchers face personal and professional retribution including harassment and legal threats, both from the technology industry and political actors.

• • Nearly 70% of respondents report safety or security threats once unimaginable in our field.

"This is not only a crisis for researchers, it's a crisis for our rights to information about how technology is impacting our children, our communities, and our societies at large," said Nabiha Syed, Board Member of the Coalition for Independent Technology Research. "Independent researchers play a critical role in holding powerful technology players to account. But without support and protection, their work and the public's ability to understand and respond to tech's impact is at risk. We need to treat independent tech research as a public good, just like public health or education."

The Coalition for Independent Technology Research is not idly standing by. Coalition members are building collective power to defend the right to research and free information. Through coordinated advocacy, mutual aid, cross-border solidarity and public education, Coalition members work together to ensure that public interest technology researchers are protected, supported, and free to ask the hard questions, so that knowledge about technology's impacts isn't controlled by corporations, but belongs to the public.

Read the full report here.

About the Coalition for Independent Technology Research
The Coalition is a global network of more than 471 scholars, civil society researchers, technologists, and journalists across more than 45 countries working to protect and advance independent research on technology and society. We advocate for the right to ask hard questions and publish findings that are independent of the technology industry's influence—because understanding technology's impact is essential. Learn more at https://independenttechresearch.org

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