Meta discontinues CrowdTangle tool despite appeals from academics and journalists

Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has recently shut down CrowdTangle, a popular tool among researchers, watchdog organizations, and journalists for tracking social media posts and monitoring the spread of misinformation. The decision to shut down CrowdTangle, which Meta had announced earlier this year, has sparked protests from various groups.

Several organizations, including the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Digital Forensic Research Lab at the Atlantic Council, Human Rights Watch, and NYU’s Center for Social Media & Politics, expressed concern over the shutdown of CrowdTangle. They sent a letter to Meta requesting that the tool continue to be available at least until January, to cover the U.S. presidential elections, citing the importance of the tool in enhancing transparency and oversight mechanisms.

CrowdTangle has been recognized as a crucial tool for researchers to sift through the vast amount of information on social media platforms, aiding in the identification of harmful content and threats. The tool has been vital in understanding the spread of disinformation, hate speech, and voter suppression, thus playing a significant role in fostering civic discourse and democracy.

Although Meta has introduced an alternative to CrowdTangle, known as the Meta Content Library, access to this new tool is restricted to academic researchers and nonprofits, excluding many news organizations. Critics have raised concerns about the Meta Content Library, stating that it is not as comprehensive or user-friendly as CrowdTangle, at least not yet.

Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, mentioned in a recent blog post that the company is actively seeking feedback from hundreds of researchers to enhance the Meta Content Library and make it more user-friendly. Meta had acquired CrowdTangle back in 2016.