Meta shutters tool used to fight disinformation, despite outcry

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.

Regulators, including the European Commission and a bipartisan group of U.S. senators and Congress members, say shuttering CrowdTangle now could be risky – given how useful it’s been to help researchers identify security threats and misinformation, especially around elections.

Meta’s new tool is more limited

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.”

Researchers mourn the loss of CrowdTangle

CrowdTangle was created by Brandon Silverman and Matt Garmur in 2011, who offered it to digital publishers like BuzzFeed, CNN and Vox. Facebook bought it in 2016 and let researchers and other media partners use it for free. It was the first time a major social network provided a tool to the public to monitor trends in real time.

Researchers and journalists quickly found that it was extremely useful in tracking viral false content, including Russian influence operations, accounts linked to the QAnon conspiracy theory and COVID misinformation.

Over the years, CrowdTangle has been used by hundreds of other academics, journalists and companies, who’ve covered topics that range from how the Islamic State has maintained social media accounts to best practices for comedians on Facebook.

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.”