Meta is shutting monitoring tool CrowdTangle in the US election year

Meta is shutting down the monitoring tool CrowdTangle in the US election year.

It emerged on Tuesday that a digital tool considered vital in tracking viral falsehoods, CrowdTangle, will be unavailable after August 14.

A digital tool considered vital in tracking viral falsehoods, CrowdTangle will be decommissioned by Facebook owner Meta less than three months before the US election.

In the absence of the monitoring tool, fact-checkers, researchers, and journalists, will not be easily able to spot posts that spread disinformation and misinformation. 

“Cutting off access to CrowdTangle will severely limit independent oversight of harms,” Melanie Smith, director of research at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, told AFP

The Palo Alto company plans to replace it with a new tool that researchers say lacks the same functionality, and which news organizations will largely not have access to.

CrowdTangle has been a game-changer for years. The tool offers researchers and journalists crucial real-time transparency into the spread of conspiracy theories and hate speech on influential Meta-owned platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.