Lawmakers ask Meta to delay shutting down CrowdTangle
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
A group of bipartisan lawmakers on Wednesday sent Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg a letter asking the firm to delay shutting down CrowdTangle for six months.
Why it matters: The lawmakers argue Meta has a responsibility to be transparent about the content being shared on its platform ahead of the 2024 election.
- Researchers, journalists and others use CrowdTangle to measure what's trending on Facebook and Instagram.
Catch up quick: Meta, then Facebook, acquired CrowdTangle in 2016. The tool was originally created to help with community organizing, but quickly found a niche in helping web publishers optimize their content on Facebook.
- More groups outside of the news industry — researchers, human rights groups and others — began using the tool to track the flow of information for civic and political purposes.
- Meta announced plans in March to shutter CrowdTangle on Aug. 14.
- The decision was met with frustration from publishers, journalists and civic groups that relied on the tool to get insights into what was trending.
Zoom in: Meta said it would introduce new research tools that would be accessible to select researchers. News publishers or anyone with commercial interests will not be granted access to that data.
The lawmakers wrote to Zuckerberg that they're "deeply concerned that Meta Content Library also has significant limitations that make it an inadequate replacement for CrowdTangle at the current time."
- Lawmakers also cited concerns about transparency around who will get access to the tool.
- Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), John Cornyn (R-Tex.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) signed onto the letter, along with Reps. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.), Neal Dunn (R-Fla.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.)
The big picture: CrowdTangle became the source of a heated internal debate at Meta over the company's commitment to transparency following the 2020 election, Axios has reported.
- For years, journalists used CrowdTangle data to suggest Facebook's algorithms favored hyper-political content.
- Meta has argued that CrowdTangle does not offer a comprehensive view of what's actually going viral, because it doesn't measure the reach of a particular piece of content
Between the lines: Meta began to de-prioritize news and political content beginning in 2022, giving news publishers less to gain from access to the tool.
- Meta confirmed receipt of the letter, but offered no comment.
What we're watching: The lawmakers gave Meta until Aug. 12 to answer questions about its plans to shut down CrowdTangle, including whether it will delay shutting down the tool for at least six months while it makes changes to the functionality and access of its new content library.
