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Meta plans to close essential disinformation tracking tool before significant US votes
In a surprising decision with potentially serious impacts on the upcoming US elections, Meta has revealed plans to close CrowdTangle. This widely-used tool for monitoring social media and ensuring transparency has been instrumental in helping researchers identify online misinformation and hate speech.
Meta, Facebook's parent company, recently declared that it plans to suspend CrowdTangle, a widely used tool for monitoring social media and ensuring transparency. This action, set to take place on August 14, 2024, has ignited considerable discussion among journalists, researchers, and civil society groups, especially in light of the forthcoming US presidential election.
CrowdTangle has been instrumental in assisting journalists and researchers in monitoring the spread of false and misleading information across social media networks. Its upcoming closure has sparked worries about possible effects on initiatives to make tech firms responsible for their part in propagating incorrect data.
Meta declares its intention to substitute CrowdTangle with a fresh Content Library API. This change, however, will require researchers and nonprofit organizations to submit applications to gain access to the company's data.
The Mozilla Foundation and a number of other non-profit organizations have expressed their criticism, arguing that the new product is missing many of CrowdTangle's crucial features. They have strongly recommended that Meta keep the original tool in place until January 2025.
Following the criticism, Meta representative Andy Stone justified the choice, asserting that the Content Library will offer more detailed information than CrowdTangle. He also mentioned that it would be available to nonprofit organizations, scholars, and specialists in election integrity.
Brandon Silverman, who co-founded CrowdTangle and served as its CEO even after Facebook bought it in 2016, stated his view that it is crucial for platforms to make their data available for external examination, according to a Wired report. He stressed that it is necessary for lawmakers and elected representatives to put in place legal rules concerning transparency and data access on these platforms.
Silverman emphasized the transparency guidelines on data sharing in the Digital Services Act by the European Union. He pointed out an increasing pattern among different platforms like Alibaba and TikTok, which provide programs that allow external researchers to access public content in real-time.
Silverman admitted that there were obstacles in putting such steps into action, specifically referring to Twitter's limited data access rules and Meta's decrease in data distribution projects. He highlighted the necessity of finding a middle ground between data availability and safeguarding privacy, advocating for more widespread public involvement and discussion on the matter.
As Meta plans to phase out CrowdTangle, there are ongoing worries about the possible effects on transparency and accountability in the online world, especially before major political occasions such as the US presidential election. This choice highlights wider discussions about the obligations of technology firms and the necessity for regulatory measures to protect democratic procedures in the era of digital technology.
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