CrowdTangle is a tool to track the spread of viral stories on Facebook. More importantly, it is used to check misinformation. The tool plays an important role in the lives of many users of social media.
But, according to a Bloomberg report, Meta, the mother company of Facebook, is reducing support for the tool. Furthermore, it was reported that Meta is expected to shut CrowdTangle down.
Meta declined to comment on what it plans to do with CrowdTangle. For months, the company has kept its plans for the tool a mystery.
CrowdTangle Will Play a Crucial Role in Fighting Misinformation
Meta purchased CrowdTangle in 2016. Accordingly, the company disbanded the team working on the tool. In January, it reportedly "paused" access for new users.
"CrowdTangle is a public insights tool from Facebook that helps publishers, journalists, researchers, fact-checkers and more follow, analyze, and report on what's happening across social media," according to The Verge.
It is done by making public content from Pages, Groups, Instagram accounts, and popular subreddits more discoverable. The tool also "make the engagement data on that content easy to sort through at scale."
According to CNET, CrowdTangle plays a crucial role as fact-checkers, researchers and journalists use the tool to check the misinformation spreading across the internet. This include those on social media sites like Meta's Facebook and Instagram.
The tool will be particularly important in the upcoming midterm elections as misinformation on the internet could have serious political implications.
Mike Caulfield, research scientist at the University of Washington Center for an Informed Public, told CNET that: "The bigger thing that people in that [misinformation] universe are trying to do with 2022 is to win the narrative battle."
"If they are able to convince large swaths of the public that the 2022 elections are illegitimate, then they are more likely to get the sorts of legislative changes that they want," Caufield added.
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CrowdTangle Will Remain Until Midterm Elections
Meta said CrowdTangle could help publishers "surface stories that matter, measure their social performance and identify influencers."
Performance of stories across other networks, including Instagram and Twitter, is being tracked by the tool.
"Removing CrowdTangle would pull access that people have used to surface data showing high engagement with right-wing news sources on Facebook," according to The Verge. Sometimes, the listing results appear to be different from the Facebook's curated official reports.
According to a Bloomberg report, a voter advocacy group, Common Cause, has used CrowdTangle to check misinformation in real time. Eventually, the tool was instrumental in flagging the stories in Twitter and Facebook for removal.
In February, Meta has started an official process to shut down the tool, a report stated. However, due to the EU's Digital Services Act push, it was paused.
Now, Facebook engineers are already assigned with the task to shut it down "eventually."
According to Erin McPike, a Meta spokesperson, Meta will continue to support researchers. The company also plans to create an even more valuable tools for the researchers.
McPike said that Meta will keep CrowdTangle alive for at least this year's U.S. midterm election.
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