Research Scope
Silent Forums Initiative operates as a digital discourse archival infrastructure documenting publicly accessible online forum content from regions with limited representation in existing computational social science datasets.
The project implements structured data acquisition protocols from forum platforms in rural, peri-urban, and linguistically isolated regions. Data collection follows institutional ethics review procedures and maintains GDPR compliance standards.
Data infrastructure for regions systematically excluded from platform-native analytics and academic datasets.
The Visibility Paradox
We recognize that making communities visible is not always empowerment. For some groups—particularly those with protected characteristics or facing systemic discrimination—increased visibility can mean increased targeting, surveillance, or unwanted attention. Our approach prioritizes community agency: communities decide if, how, and to whom they become visible.
Read our ethical framework→Research Ethics Commitment
This project adheres to King's College London research ethics guidelines and GDPR compliance. We implement privacy-first protocols, enable community takedown requests within 5 business days, and refuse to share data with surveillance actors or commercial AI platforms. If our research makes someone vulnerable, we have failed—not as researchers, but as humans.
Operational Framework
SFI functions as a research archive providing structured access to forum discourse data through tiered permissions, ethical review processes, and community takedown protocols. All outputs undergo institutional review prior to publication.
Methodological Structure
Data collection employs rate-limited web scraping with hash-based anonymization, semantic clustering through transformer-based NLP models, and temporal analysis of discourse patterns across 12+ geographic regions.
Project Timeline
Key milestones and achievements in our journey to amplify marginalized digital voices
Website & Research Framework Launch
Official website launched with methodology documentation, ethics protocols, and initial research framework
Project Launch & Whitepaper Release
Silent Forums Initiative founded at King's College London with official whitepaper v1.0 release
Pilot Data Collection
Initial forum scouting and pilot collection from 3-5 underrepresented regions across multiple languages
NLP Pipeline & Analysis
Semantic clustering and thematic analysis using GPT-based models across collected data
Interactive Map Launch
Public release of data explorer with regional filtering, thematic clustering, and network mapping
First Policy Briefs & Case Studies
Release initial policy briefs and documented case studies with academic peer review
Community Expansion & Partnerships
Expand regional coverage, establish research partnerships, and launch advisory board program
More milestones coming as we expand regional coverage and research impact
Meet the Researchers
A multidisciplinary team combining digital media studies, data analytics, and civic engagement
Hunter Guo
过泓锦
King's College London
Digital Media & Culture
Research Design & Methodology Oversight
Institutional Ethics Compliance
Regional Sampling Framework
Gabriel Vaccan
加布里埃尔·瓦坎
King's College London
Digital Media & Culture
Data Pipeline Architecture (Python, Node.js)
Scraping Infrastructure & Rate Limiting
Database Schema Design & Query Optimization
Advisory Board
We are currently establishing our advisory board to include experts in digital ethnography, data ethics, community engagement, and policy impact. Academic advisors and community representatives will be announced in Q2 2025.
Standards & Certifications
Our research adheres to the highest ethical and professional standards
GDPR Compliant
Data protection standards
WCAG AA
Accessibility certified
Open Research Data
Transparent methodology
Ethics Reviewed
Academic standards
Carbon Rating A+
Sustainable digital infrastructure