Meta Shuts Down CrowdTangle Amid Backlash; 50,000 Petitioned Against Move

Aug 14, 2024, 12:21 PM

Meta has officially shut down CrowdTangle, a transparency tool used by researchers and journalists to track hate speech and disinformation on Facebook and Instagram. The decision has sparked significant backlash from civil society groups, with Mozilla reporting that over 50,000 people petitioned against the move. The closure comes just months before the U.S. elections, raising concerns about the ability to monitor misinformation. ABC News used CrowdTangle to help up-end a disinformation operation targeting the UK race riots. Critics argue that this decision will negatively impact public interest research and make it harder to study the spread of misinformation online.