Newsletter
The content discovery and social monitoring platform CrowdTangle will be shut down on August 14, a few weeks before the US Presidential election. CrowdTangle is a subset of Meta, which was bought by the tech giant in 2016.
CrowdTangle has gone through many ups and downs since Meta acquired it. In 2021, Meta discharged the team responsible for running the platform, and in 2022, the platform stopped registering new users. Despite being widely used by academics, journalists, and fact-checkers, CrowdTangle will be sent to Meta Graveyard on August 14.
As the Wall Street Journal reports, Meta Content Library will replace CrowdTangle. However, the new platform will only be available to academics and nonprofit researchers. This news is particularly disheartening for independent fact-checkers and for-profit news organizations. Because they have relied on CrowdTangle for their work and now face significant challenges in their operations.
Meta kills CrowdTangle on August 14, introducing Content Library as a replacement
Meta Content Library was initially launched to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act. Meanwhile, the company claims its new platform has some new features. Including data on public comments and the ability to search content based on views.
While the platform is still in its beta phase, early adopters have expressed their disappointment. They noted that it lags behind CrowdTangle and lacks essential features such as the ability to download data from public posts. The shutdown of CrowdTangle is a significant setback for organizations and individuals who relied on its insightful data for their research. And the loss of such a valuable platform could potentially impact transparency and free data access.
Meta’s decision to shut down CrowdTangle 12 weeks before the US Presidential election has sparked controversy. In a time when the flow of rumors and fake news reaches its peak, the absence of a platform like CrowdTangle, which could greatly assist journalists and fact-checkers, is a matter of significant concern.
CrowdTangle’s former co-founder and CEO Brandon Silverman blamed Meta for shutting down the platform just before the US election, adding that the decision was “incredibly irresponsible.” Silverman also said Meta Content Library has some huge gaps and is not close to CrowdTangle yet.