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Research from Proof News, the Tow Center for Digital Journalism and Algorithmic Transparency Institute detailing how Meta Content Library’s features stack up to CrowdTangle, which Meta shut down Wednesday.Image Credits:TechCrunch | Proof News, Tow Center for Journalism, Algorithmic Transparency Institute
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journalist , researchersandpoliticiansaremourningMeta ’s shutdown of CrowdTangle , which they used to track the spread of disinformation on Facebook and Instagram .
In CrowdTangle ’s place , Meta is offering its Content Library — but is limiting usage to people from “ qualified academic or non-profit-making founding who are pursuing scientific or public interest research . ” Many investigator and academics , and most journalists , are barred from accessing the cock .
Those who have been using the Meta Content Library say it is less sheer and approachable , has fewer features and has a worse drug user experience design .
Many people in the community have spell open letters to Meta in protest . They question why the company ax a useful tool for combating misinformation three months ahead of the most combative U.S. election in story — an election that is already threaten by the proliferation of AI deepfakes and chatbot misinformation , some of which has come fromMeta ’s own chatbot — and supplant it with a peter that academics say is plainly not as in force .
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Meta has n’t provided many answers . At anMIT Technology Review conferencein May , Meta ’s president of global affairs Nick Clegg was require why the company would n’t wait to shut down CrowdTangle until after the election . He call CrowdTangle a “ degrading pecker ” that does n’t render complete and accurate perceptiveness into what ’s happening on Facebook .
“ It only measures a minute bar slice of a cake slice , which is particular forms of interlocking , ” say Clegg at the metre . “ It literally does n’t tell you what multitude are seeing online . ”
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His rhetoric paint CrowdTangle as an almost recklessly regretful tool for Meta to allow to live . That ’s in austere contrast to Meta ’s promotionof the program in 2020as a source allow to Secretaries of res publica and election control panel across the country to help them “ quickly name misinformation , elector interference and suppression ” and create custom “ public Live Displays for each state . ”
Today , Meta ’s hard agate line is that the Content Library provides more detailed insights about what people actually see and experience on Facebook and Instagram . A spokesperson from Meta told TechCrunch the newfangled creature extend a more comprehensive data point gathering experience , which now includes multimedia from Reels and page view counts . The spokesperson said MCL will soon admit Threads content , as well , and pointed out that CrowdTangle ’s data was weight towards accounts with very large followings and battle .
Some researchers who were customary to the old pecker disagree that CrowdTangle was inadequate . They would also point out that those accounts with the most appointment are incisively the I they want data on , as those are understandably the most influential .
“ [ MCL has ] only 10 % of the serviceability of CrowdTangle , ” Cameron Hickey , CEO of the National Conference on Citizenship , told TechCrunch . He pointed out that CrowdTangle was “ a advanced quasi - commercial product ” with its own business before Facebook acquired it in 2016 . Under the Facebook umbrella , the creature only improved as the team onboarded feature article testimonial from a large pool of user . Hickey serve author a report that compare the features on the two political program , co - published by Proof Newsand the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia ’s Journalism School .
Hickey said Meta ’s content library offer some of the same data from CrowdTangle , but at long last only “ 1 % of the features . ”
“ If you wanted to look at the number of following that CNN ’s Facebook page has had over clock time , that ’s something you ca n’t do in the Meta Content Library , but you may do in CrowdTangle , ” said Hickey . “ And indicant like that are often very useful for empathize how the prevalence or protrusion of an actor on social media change over time , and colligate those to other thing , like , did they make a viral post and then suddenly their total number of followers doubled ? ”
Some of the feature that exist across both platform — like get across how often political party stake about certain topics and seeing the comparative fight — are simply more ho-hum to do on MCL , says Hickey , which points to poor user experience invention .
Crucially , even though masses might be able to access data — say , about Post that mentioned immigration — what they can do with that data is substantially more limited .
“ You ca n’t build out the kinds of synergistic chart that were usable with CrowdTangle , ” said Hickey . “ You ca n’t build out public dashboards . ”
( A spokesperson for Meta told TechCrunch that on August 14 , the 24-hour interval CrowdTangle died , the company launched a configurable real - metre dashboard feature article to let user cursorily expose post provender and trend chart based on certain keywords and manufacturer . )
“ And most importantly , ” Hickey continued , “ you ca n’t download all of the posts . ”
Users can only download posts for accounts that have greater than 25,000 followers , but many politicians descend well forgetful of that reckoning .
“ This leaves a hatful of researchers with very few options , and one of the only persist ones is one that has complication , which is scraping the data directly , ” say Hickey .
Another independent job with MCL is that Meta is not granting access to watchdogs that previously used CrowdTangle to track misinformation ’s spread .
Media Matters , a nonprofit watchdog news media organization , narrate TechCrunch it does n’t have access to MCL today . In the past , the organization used CrowdTangle to show that perverse to right - backstage medium and Republican talk points , Facebook was not actually censor conservative information .
In fact , right - leaning page start out considerably more engagement on their content compared to non - aligned or left - lean pageboy , inquiry director Kayla Gogarty told TechCrunch .
“ CrowdTangle has given us the power to see the sorts of contentedness that is wide engaged with on the platform , ” Gogarty said . “ Algorithms are ordinarily a bootleg box , but at least having some of that engagement data could help us learn a little more about the algorithmic program . ”
Gogarty manoeuvre out that forward of the January 6 onslaught on Capitol Hill , research worker and newsperson used the tool to fathom the alarm about on-line organizing and the potential for violence to delegitimize the election .
“ What this ultimately is going to mean is just that few polite bon ton chemical group are able to supervise and track what ’s happening on Facebook and Instagram during this election year , ” Brandi Geurkink , executive director of the Coalition for Independent Technology Research , told TechCrunch .
Hickey counterpoint Meta , which did spend time and probably 1000000 of dollar to make the Content Library , with Elon Musk ’s actions at Twitter ( now X ) . When Musk bought Twitter , he immediatelylimited access to the Twitter API , which allows developer , journalist and research worker to memory access and analyze datum from the political program in a similar fashion to CrowdTangle . Now , the price shred on the cheapest enterpriseX API packageis $ 42,000 a calendar month , and it provide access to only50 million posts .
This clause has been updated with more information from Meta .
