SAN FRANCISCO — Meta Platforms – the parent company of Facebook and Instagram – has shut down a tool widely used to monitor social media, mainly for tracking fake news and other posts spreading misinformation.
CrowdTangle was a favorite of researchers, watchdog organizations and journalists, interested in the ascertaining the source and dissemination of misinformation.
The latest move again raises some serious questions about the role and the working of social media platforms. They have already been under the radar for alleged manufacturing and controlling of narrative.
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Meta had announced its decision earlier this year, which came into effect on Wednesday.
TRANSPARENCY IN QUESTION
Earlier in May, it was reported that dozens of groups had sent a letter to the tech giant, asking it to keep the tool running through at least January so that the US presidential election could be monitored.
It included 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.
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“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,” the letter said.
CrowdTangle, “has been an essential tool in helping researchers parse through the vast amount of information on the platform and identify harmful content and threats,” it added.
IT WAS A CHECK ON HATE SPEECH
In March, the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation sent Meta a similar letter asking it to keep the tool, which was available for free, functioning until January. That letter was also signed by several dozen groups and individual academic researchers.
“For years, CrowdTangle has represented an industry best practice for real-time platform transparency. It has become a lifeline for understanding how disinformation, hate speech, and voter suppression spread on Facebook, undermining civic discourse and democracy,” the Mozilla letter said.
CROWDTANGLE DOESN’T PROVIDE A COMPLETE PICTURE
Meta has released an alternative to CrowdTangle, called the Meta Content Library. But access to it is limited to academic researchers and nonprofits, which excludes most news organizations. Critics have also complained that it’s not as useful as CrowdTangle — at least not yet.
It said on Wednesday that CrowdTangle doesn’t provide a complete picture of what is happening on its platforms and said its new tools are more comprehensive.
Meta acquired CrowdTangle in 2016.
Stratheia is currently positioned as a prominent crowdsourcing web portal, embodying identity and reputation in the field of opinion/insights on major topics. By engaging distinguished scholars and experts worldwide, it provides fresh perspectives on significant global issues, spanning politics, intelligence, technology, economy, military affairs, geopolitics, and lawfare, aimed at informing and benefiting a diverse global audience.