Current:Home > MyMeta kills off misinformation tracking tool CrowdTangle despite pleas from researchers, journalists-Angel Dreamer Wealth Society D1 Reviews & Insights
Meta kills off misinformation tracking tool CrowdTangle despite pleas from researchers, journalists
View Date:2024-12-23 20:42:29
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook and Instagram parent Meta Platforms has shut down CrowdTangle, a tool widely used by researchers, watchdog organizations and journalists to monitor social media posts, notably to track how misinformation spreads on the company’s platforms.
Wednesday’s shutdown, which Meta announced earlier this year, has been protested by researchers and nonprofits. In May, dozens of groups, including 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, sent a letter to the company asking that it keep the tool running through at least January so it would be available through the U.S. presidential elections.
“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.
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.
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.
Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, said in a blog post last week that the company has been gathering feedback about Meta Content Library from “hundreds of researchers in order to make it more user-friendly and help them find the data they need for their work.”
Meta acquired CrowdTangle in 2016.
veryGood! (2)
Related
- Ariana Grande Shares Dad's Emotional Reaction to Using His Last Name in Wicked Credits
- You’ll Be Soaring, Flying After Reading Vanessa Hudgens and Cole Tucker’s Wedding Details
- Adele Hilariously Reveals Why She's Thriving as Classroom Mom
- Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori is freed from prison on humanitarian grounds
- Duke basketball vs Kentucky live updates: Highlights, scores, updates from Champions Classic
- Did you get a credit approval offer from Credit Karma? You could be owed money.
- Biden urges Congress to pass Ukraine funding now: This cannot wait
- Europe’s talks on world-leading AI rules paused after 22 hours and will start again Friday
- Chiefs block last-second field goal to save unbeaten record, beat Broncos
- Are Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes' exes dating each other? Why that's not as shocking as you might think.
Ranking
- Gerry Faust, former Notre Dame football coach, dies at 89
- Court largely sides with Louisiana sheriff’s deputies accused in lawsuit of using excessive force
- What to know about Hanukkah and how it’s celebrated around the world
- Say Anything announces 20th anniversary concert tour for '...Is a Real Boy' album
- NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Bobby Allison dies at 86
- Lawmakers to vote on censuring Rep. Jamaal Bowman for pulling a fire alarm in House office building
- 1000-Lb. Sisters’ Tammy Slaton Returns Home After 14-Month Stay in Weight Loss Rehab
- A Danish court orders a British financier to remain in pre-trial custody on tax fraud
Recommendation
-
Solawave Black Friday Sale: Don't Miss Buy 1, Get 1 Free on Age-Defying Red Light Devices
-
Massachusetts governor says AI, climate technology and robotics are part of state’s economic future
-
Russian schoolgirl shoots several classmates, leaving 1 dead, before killing herself
-
Which NFL teams are in jeopardy of falling out of playoff picture? Ranking from safe to sketchy
-
Congress returns to unfinished business and a new Trump era
-
Not just the Supreme Court: Ethics troubles plague state high courts, too
-
Tony Hawk Shares First Glimpse of Son Riley’s Wedding to Frances Bean Cobain
-
Authorities in Alaska suspend search for boy missing after deadly landslide