Instrumenting the Online Information Environment

Large-scale, centrally funded measurement systems on the economy, education, the environment, and public health enable rapid scientific research and support robust policy feedback. They provide frameworks for assessing policy effectiveness, flagging emerging problems, and informing planning processes. The online information environment—a critical domain of human interaction—has not yet been similarly instrumented. This article first reviews key measurements in other domains and outlines why existing tools for studying online environments are insufficient. It then lays out the consequences of the measurement gap, identifies key data-collection tasks, discusses the scale of resources required to meet them, and addresses the implications of generative AI for the instrumentation task. I argue that modest but strategic investments in scaled measurement infrastructure could unlock transformative research capabilities and facilitate an evidence-driven approach to policymaking that could improve how we govern online spaces.