//researcher

From first measurement to final testimony.

Understanding how technology works, where harms emerge, and how to build it better.

Matt Motyl speaking
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Expert Witness Cases

// featured in

The Wall Street JournalCNNThe New York TimesNPRThe Washington PostBBCThe GuardianBloombergVoxNewsweekScience FridayPCMag

// how i help

Clearer understanding for higher-stakes decisions

I help law firms, organizations, policymakers, and researchers understand complicated technologies, cut through confusing evidence, and weigh the real-world consequences these technologies create.

I work through what I call the DATA approach. Every project I take on moves through the same four stages — Diagnose, Audit, Translate, Advise — from first measurement to final testimony.

Diagnose

Original research & measurement

Nationally representative surveys, study design, and field experiments run across millions of people — original measurement designed and fielded from scratch. The foundation the other three stages build on.

Audit

Reproducibility & data-integrity reviews

An independent check on how a study, dataset, or analysis was produced — whether the methods hold and the findings reproduce. Drawn from work auditing platform data and the reproducibility of published science.

Translate

Speaking & workshops

Talks, briefings, and hands-on sessions that turn complicated systems and messy evidence into something a non-expert audience can act on — without flattening the details that matter.

Advise

Expert witness & advisory

Independent analysis for courts, regulators, and organizations making high-stakes calls — on recommendation systems, online harms, child safety, and platform accountability. Built to hold up under pressure.

// featured tool

Strata

A Ground Truth interactive data tool

AuditDiagnose

A public, defensible explorer for a six-wave, nationally representative panel survey of US adults on social media and technology (2023–2025) — most of the data behind the Neely Social Media Index, now interactive.

strata.mattmotyl.com
Strata — interactive data explorer for the UAS social-media panel

// selected work

Atlas

Tool
TranslateAdvise

An interactive guide to platform data built to help researchers, journalists, and policymakers understand what evidence platforms make available — and what remains difficult to study.

Visit site

Social Media Index

Research
Diagnose

A large-scale effort to measure how people actually experience major social platforms, and to compare positive and negative outcomes across them.

Expert Working Group on Recommender Systems (Knight-Georgetown Institute)

Policy
AdviseTranslate

Co-authored guidance on how recommendation systems shape what people see, where harms can emerge, and how better feeds can be designed and governed.

Visit site

What Could Go Wrong

Coming soon
TranslateDiagnose

A satirical social media tycoon simulation game about incentives, tradeoffs, and unintended consequences in platform design.

// what people say

In my 2 years of working with Matt, his research was a critical foundation for cross-company-approach to improving societal outcomes. His work often resulted in step-changes to our product strategy — marrying his expertise in social science with cutting-edge quant and qual techniques. He was able to take extremely complex domains and data challenges — and generate actionable and clear insights for Product orgs. Most importantly: he displayed an unwavering commitment to people, society, equity, and our shared-goal to make the online world a better place. I would work with Matt again in a heartbeat — and am tremendously grateful for the way he helped all of us achieve more.
Ryan Beiermeister
Ryan Beiermeister
VP at OpenAI · formerly Head of Civic Product & Director at Meta
Matt is an excellent colleague. He really stands out in his ability to distill complex technical concepts and data in simple terms. He has excellent technical abilities and communication skills, which is a potent combination, and he is great at advocating his work with key stakeholders across the company. I recommend Matt without hesitation.
Sagnik Ghosh, Ph.D.
Sagnik Ghosh, Ph.D.
Lead Engineer at Anthropic · formerly Senior Engineer at Meta
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