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Meta shutters tool used to fight disinformation, despite outcry to keep CrowdTangle going
By Dara Kerr | NPR,
2024-08-14
Meta has been bombarded by academics, researchers, politicians and regulators about a tool called CrowdTangle, which most people probably haven’t heard of. It’s been used to investigate the spread of violence, political disinformation and false narratives on Facebook and Instagram.
On Wednesday, less than three months before the U.S. election, Meta is shutting CrowdTangle down.
“Against this backdrop, Meta decided to kill one of the best tools that civil society had to monitor and report on the hate speech and election interference that is almost certain to proliferate on its platforms,” said Brandi Geurkink, executive director of the Coalition for Independent Technology Research.
More than 50,000 people have signed letters and petitions urging Meta to halt its plans , or at least wait six months, according to the Mozilla Foundation.
CrowdTangle has given researchers and journalists a glimpse into how Facebook and Instagram’s algorithms work and how false information goes viral. But, over the past few years, Meta began to limit the tool and stop accepting new users.
A Meta spokeswoman declined to comment on CrowdTangle shutting down, but did point NPR to a blog post about a new tool called Meta Content Library. The company says the Content Library is more comprehensive and provides a better picture of what is happening on its platforms.
Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs told Axios that he hopes people will see the Content Library as "a very good-faith effort," that could "lead to a flurry of new and interesting research."
Meta requires researchers to apply to access the Content Library and they must be from “qualified academic or nonprofit institutions who are pursuing scientific or public interest research.” This access is far more limited than what Meta offered with CrowdTangle.
Hundreds of researchers, including Geurkink, say the Content Library “isn’t yet sufficient.” She said she welcomes improvements to the new tool, but “they hardly fill the gaping hole that is left by CrowdTangle’s shutdown.”
The Coalition for Independent Technology Research published a website on Tuesday called “ RIP CrowdTangle ,” which will memorialize the work that was done with the tool. Other researchers and watchdogs are also mourning the loss of CrowdTangle.
“Shuttering this critical tool in another brazen blow to transparency across its platforms,” the Real Facebook Oversight Board, a coalition of academics and civil rights groups, said in a statement. “RIP Crowdtangle.” Copyright 2024 NPR
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