Facebook's terms of service dictate that your Facebook profile must be authentic. That’s a tough break for catfishers and Russian bots. But, investigative journalism is caught in these crosshairs as well.

Journalists investigating the goings-on at Facebook utilize fake accounts to test out theories and hunches pertaining to the social media giant. This practice, a direct violation of Facebook’s terms of service, has been integral in unearthing parts of Facebook’s dark underbelly.

That could change.

The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University wrote a letter on Monday to Facebook asking them to allow a “safe harbor” on behalf of reporters and researchers from the New York Times, PBS Media Hour, Gizmodo Media Group, Princeton University, the Center for Social Media Responsibility, and the University of Michigan School of Information.

The letter identifies the two biggest barriers within Facebook's terms of service as Facebook’s ban on "the automated collection of public information" and "the creation of temporary research accounts."

Temporary research accounts are just what they sound like. Reporters have made fake accounts in order to test out theories or hunches.

One of the most influential reports about Facebook came when ProPublica investigated its housing ads for discrimination. ProPublica made fake accounts and posted fake housing ads to Facebook. Through that, ProPublica found that Facebook allows advertisers to discriminate against who sees their ads. Specifically, they are allowed to curtail who can see the ad based on race. One certain section (at one point called “Ethnic Affinity” and then changed to “Multicultural Affinity”) let advertisers tick a box and ban whatever race they wanted. John Relman, a civil rights lawyer, told ProPublica: "This is horrifying. This is massively illegal. This is about as blatant a violation of the federal Fair Housing Act as one can find."

Facebook said they would shape up and fix it.

ProPublica conducted the investigation again a year later and found nothing, aside from the evolution of Ethnic Affinity into Multicultural Affinity, had changed.

This investigation inspired Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson to conduct an investigation of his own. For 20 months, Bob Ferguson & Co. created fake Facebook profiles for fake businesses and made fake ads.

“Facebook’s advertising platform allowed unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, sexual orientation, disability and religion,” Ferguson concluded. “That’s wrong, illegal, and unfair.”

So, Ferguson sued Facebook.

Facebook said it would fix the ads and make non-discriminatory ads not only a precedent in Washington but nationwide.

Ferguson also sued Facebook and Google because of poor political ad transparency, a direct effect of The Stranger’s Eli Sanders' reporting.

But, these investigations technically infringe on Facebook’s rules.

“Facebook has instructed journalists or researchers to discontinue important investigative projects,” writes the Knight Institute, “claiming that the projects violate Facebook’s terms of service.”

This is a chilling effect on freedom of speech. Facebook hasn’t sued anyone for violating these conditions, but the fact that they could looms over the heads of reporters.

The Knight Institute is thus asking for Facebook to offer a safe harbor and waive these standards when it comes to certain investigations.

It feels more and more integral especially as new information from investigations come to light. As recently as last week, Facebook itself identified a contingency of Russian-made fake accounts that were meant to meddle in the November midterm election.

The Knight Institute is asking for a response by September 7th.

“Some of these investigations are time-sensitive, as they involve, for example,” wrote the Knight Institute, “the upcoming elections in the United States.”