LONDON: Meta has announced that it has shut down CrowdTangle, a tool widely used by researchers, watchdogs, and journalists to monitor social media posts in real time.
The decision comes at a critical juncture, with new reports revealing Meta’s ongoing struggles to moderate content in Hebrew, and just months before the US presidential election.
The discontinuation of CrowdTangle, which Meta had announced earlier this year, has sparked protests from researchers and nonprofits, including the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Digital Forensic Research Lab at the Atlantic Council, Human Rights Watch, and New York University’s Center for Social Media and Politics.
These organizations have urged Meta to delay the shutdown by six months, arguing that the tool is crucial for studying the impact of social media on public discourse.
In a joint letter they said that Meta “has a responsibility to ensure that the public, independent researchers, journalists, and policymakers can study and address the impact that platforms and their algorithms are having.”
Meta responded earlier this week, saying that CrowdTangle was being discontinued because it had become “hard to maintain” and “does not provide a representative picture of what is happening on our platforms.”
The company plans to replace CrowdTangle with the Meta Content Library, a new tool that is believed to offer more extensive data, including the ability to analyze comments.
However, access to this tool will be limited to researchers affiliated with nonprofit institutions, who must apply through a third party partnered with Meta.
News publishers and other groups with commercial interests will not be eligible for access.
The letter said: “This decision jeopardizes essential pre- and post-election oversight mechanisms and undermines Meta’s transparency efforts during this critical period, and at a time when social trust and digital democracy are alarmingly fragile.”
Meta originally acquired CrowdTangle in 2016 to enhance content insights for publishers tracking content across platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), Reddit, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
CrowdTangle became a key tool over the years for tracking the flow of information on social media, including viral falsehoods that led to real-world harm.
Its shutdown coincides with a new scandal facing Meta. Reports on Thursday revealed the company’s ongoing difficulties in moderating content related to the Israel-Palestine conflict, particularly in Hebrew.
Arab News earlier this month reported that, despite recent internal policy changes, Meta’s lack of sufficient investment had led to a spike in violent and harmful content, primarily in Hebrew.
A former Meta employee highlighted inequities in Meta’s policies governing hate speech related to Palestine, noting that fear of retaliation for raising concerns about content related to the conflict suggested the company’s priorities were “not about actually making sure content is safe for the community.”
One internal document revealed that Meta’s policies required the removal of statements like “boycott Jewish shops” and “boycott Muslim shops” but allowed the phrase “boycott Arab stores.”
