With Meta decision to decommission CrowdTangle, a digital tool essential for tracking viral misinformation. During a crucial election year, researchers fear it will impede efforts to detect political misinformation. Experts suggest that discontinuing the monitoring tool aligns with a concerning trend in the tech industry. Where transparency and security measures are being rolled back. Meta plans to shut down CrowdTangle on August 14, just before the US election. Replace it with a new tool that lacks the same functionality and will be inaccessible to most news organizations.
For years, CrowdTangle has played a pivotal role providing researchers and journalists. With invaluable real-time insights into the dissemination of conspiracy theories. Hate speech on Meta-owned platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
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Meta plans to shut down CrowdTangle on August 14
Killing off the monitoring tool, a move experts say is in line with a tech industry trend of rolling back transparency and security measures. It is a major blow as dozens of countries hold elections this year a period when bad actors typically spread false narratives more than ever.
“In a year where almost half of the global population is expected to vote in elections, 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. “It represents a grave step backwards for social media platform transparency.”Meta is set to replace CrowdTangle with a new Content Library, a technology still under development.
It’s a tool that some in the tech industry, including former CrowdTangle chief executive Brandon Silverman. It said is currently not an effective replacement. Especially in elections likely to see a proliferation of AI-enabled falsehoods”It’s an entire new muscle” that Meta is yet to build to protect the integrity of elections, Silverman told AFP, calling for “openness and transparency.