CrowdTangle

Meta shut CrowdTangle in August 2024, replacing the election-era transparency tool with the more limited Meta Content Library amid researcher and regulatory scrutiny.

Who they are

CrowdTangle was a social-content monitoring and analytics tool acquired by Facebook, later Meta, in 2016. In the coverage, it served journalists, researchers and publishers including CNN, BuzzFeed and ESPN as a way to track how material spread across Facebook and Instagram, including viral content, conspiracy theories and stories embarrassing to the platforms.

The recent arc

Coverage peaked in 2021Q3 and again in 2022Q1, when CrowdTangle was central to arguments over how Facebook’s engagement data should be interpreted. Axios reported in 2020 that the tool measures engagement rather than reach, while reporting on Kevin Roose’s CrowdTangle-based posts said Facebook’s News Feed team viewed their implications as inaccurate. The tool also appeared alongside Facebook’s delayed content-transparency reporting on COVID-vaccine misinformation and in coverage of platform harms such as the Buffalo attack livestreamed on Twitch.

In 2024, the story shifted decisively from measurement debates to the tool’s survival. Meta announced a plan to close CrowdTangle in August and substitute the Meta Content Library, prompting Brandon Silverman, Mozilla Foundation and more than 90 advocacy and research groups to oppose the decision. Meta temporarily re-enabled or added safeguards around the tool for EU elections, but shut it down on August 14; days later, the European Commission sought more information on the replacement library and its API under the Digital Services Act.

The tension

The coverage circles a conflict between Meta’s control over access to data about its platforms and the needs of independent scrutiny. Meta positioned the Content Library as CrowdTangle’s replacement, but lawmakers, Mozilla and Silverman argued that losing the established tool—particularly for news outlets and during elections—would weaken the ability to monitor misinformation and high-performing content.

Why it matters

CrowdTangle’s shutdown makes the quality, availability and usability of Meta’s replacement data tools a consequential test for platform accountability. If the Content Library does not meet researchers’, journalists’ and regulators’ needs, monitoring of election misinformation and viral content on Meta services could become less independently visible; the European Commission’s inquiry shows that this question has regulatory as well as research implications.

Related: Meta · Facebook · Brandon Silverman · Congress