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Category: Analysis

Description: This dataset provides historical information about Facebook’s Graph API Reference (developers.facebook.com/docs/), derived from archived web sources available in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine (archive.org/web/) until February 2020. This information includes: (a) (Historical) network graphs and data tables of all API components and ‘endpoints’ from all previous API versions (2006–2020); (b) all ‘API’ mentions in the Graph API Reference (2006–2019); (c) details about all (versioned and unversioned) changes documented in the Changelog, including separate ‘Breaking Changes’ (2008–2020); (d) details about the Graph API ‘User’ and ‘Page’ objects (including all documented fields, edges, and parameters) from all previous API versions (2006–2020); (e) details about the Marketing API ‘Targeting Specs’ from all previous API versions (2012–2020); (f) details about permissions (including app review requirements) documented in the ‘Permissions Reference’ from all previous API versions (2006–2020); and (g) (high-resolution) information graphics created from these sources (created with assistance from Á. Briones (DensityDesign Lab at the Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy)). Data files are also included separately by graphic. The dataset is one of the outcomes of the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) working group ‘Data sharing troubles: Tracing the evolution of the Facebook Graph API’ (2019–2020); and is deposited for the (open access) journal article: van der Vlist, F. N., Helmond, A., Burkhardt, M., & Seitz, T. (2022) API Governance: The Case of Facebook’s Evolution. Social Media + Society, 8(2): 1–24. SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051221086228.; and for the (open access) working paper: van der Vlist, F. N., Helmond, A., Burkhardt, M., & Seitz, T. (2021) The Technicity of Platform Governance: Structure and Evolution of Facebook’s APIs. CRC ‘Media of Cooperation’ Working Paper Series No. 20. Siegen, DE: Collaborative Research Centre ‘Media of Cooperation’, University of Siegen. https://doi.org/10.25819/ubsi/9951. Figures 4 and 5 were created with the help of PyCatFlow, which is available at: Burkhardt, M. & Natta, H. (2021). PyCatFlow: A Python Package for Visualizing Categorical Data over Time. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5531785.