Navigating Public Backlash: Ethical and Practical Lessons from Social Media Recruitment in Sensitive Research

Introduction: Recruiting participants for research on sensitive and stigmatized topics or populations poses unique practical and ethical challenges when digital platforms are utilized. While digital platforms enable the recruitment of historically hard-to-reach populations, they also allow public backlash to be witnessed by both researchers and participants. Online public backlash can lead to fewer participants being recruited, impact study processes, and negatively affect the well-being of researchers subjected to public condemnation. 

Goals and Methods: The purpose of this two-phased qualitative study is to explore the practical and ethical implications of utilizing digital platforms for recruiting research participants for stigmatized topics. Phase 1 involves semi-structured interviews with researchers (n=20) who experienced public backlash during digital recruitment. Phase 2 includes a fictitious study on Ukrainian transgender youth, used to collect and analyze the public backlash through an AI-based sentiment analysis program. The fictitious study serves as an ethical safeguard, generating a real public backlash in a controlled research environment. Participants (n=10) recruited through this fictitious study will be debriefed to ensure transparency, offer support resources and invite them to share their experiences with observed public backlash during semi-structured interviews. Collected data will be subjected to thematic analysis. The Stigma and Social Exclusion framework will be used to examine how vulnerable groups are stereotyped and marginalized, while the Digital Ethics and Privacy framework will highlight confidentiality and accountability in digital spaces.

Results: The data analysis can reveal the impact of public backlash in digital spaces on one's well-being, safety and research trustworthiness. Additionally, it can inform the development of guidance tools, revised protocols and the creation of practical strategies to mitigate challenges in digital recruitment.

Conclusions: The exploration of this topic will benefit institutions, research ethics boards, researchers and participants by enhancing understanding of public backlash during digital recruitment and informing the creation of ethically and methodologically rigorous practices.