Key Points
Earlier this month, Meta announced that it would be shutting down CrowdTangle, the social media monitoring and transparency tool that has allowed journalists and researchers to track the spread of mis- and disinformation..
Metas move is just the latest example of a tech company rolling back transparency and security measures as the world enters the biggest global election year in history..
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone countered in posts on X that the groups claims are just wrong, saying the new Content Library will contain more comprehensive data than CrowdTangle and be made available to nonprofits, academics, and election integrity experts..
Brandon Silverman, cofounder and former CEO of CrowdTangle, who continued to work on the tool after Facebook acquired it in 2016, says its time to force platforms to open up their data to outsiders..
The next thing we need is funding and philanthropic efforts and civil society efforts to start building open source tools that can take that data and build useful analytic features on top for election-protection groups and fact-checking disinformation...
You might be interested in
Meta to Replace Widely Used Data Tool—and Largely Cut Off Reporter Access
14, Mar, 24CrowdTangle has been a source for some embarrassing articles about its Facebook and Instagram. The company says its replacement tool is only for academics and nonprofit researchers.