RIP Crowdtangle, As Meta Slides Further Into the Dark

12 AUGUST 2024 — The Real Facebook Oversight Board issued the following statement on Wednesday’s pending shut down of Crowdtangle, a social media monitoring tool used to track misinformation on Facebook and Instagram -

For years, Crowdtangle has been one of the few transparent, usable tools for researchers to track and better understand hate and disinformation across Facebook and Instagram. Wednesday, Meta slides further into the dark, shuttering this critical tool in another brazen blow to transparency across its platforms.

With the US Elections now just three months away, we have less visibility than ever into political content on Meta platforms. And as researchers have shown, Meta’s replacement — the Meta Content Library (MCL), “is less transparent and accessible than CrowdTangle.. has fewer features … and researchers say the process of getting access to the tool is cumbersome and slow — and some journalists can’t access it at all.”

Meta has no interest in transparency and accountability — only in giving lip service to their own self-administered tools and processes, from the MCL to the Oversight Board. By prioritizing PR over democracy, and limiting what researchers know and see, Meta is again making the wrong choice — one with dire consequences.

The Real Facebook Oversight Board and our partners and allies all use CrowdTangle as an essential tool for tracking online harms; the internet and democracy will be darker places as of Wednesday. RIP Crowdtangle — regulate Meta now.

Real Facebook Oversight Board members are available for interviews. Statements do not reflect the individual positions of all Real Facebook Oversight Board Members. Contact us at media@the-citizens.com. The Real Facebook Oversight Board is an emergency response to the ongoing harms on Facebook’s platforms from leading global scholars, experts and advocates.