One factor researchers have used to observe the unfold of viral tales on Facebook — including ones that spread misinformation — is a software that Meta owns known as CrowdTangle. Based on nameless sources, Bloomberg experiences what many have suspected — that Facebook has largely eliminated growth assist from CrowdTangle and is making plans to shut the software down.
Removing CrowdTangle would pull entry that folks like Kevin Roose have used to floor information exhibiting excessive engagement with right-wing news sources on Facebook, itemizing outcomes that generally seem to be at odds with Facebook’s curated official experiences. In an article last July for The New York Times, Roose described inside “data wars” about how a lot data the corporate ought to launch, with CrowdTangle founder and CEO Brandon Silverman arguing it ought to share extra information. Silverman left the company in October 2021.
“What data is CrowdTangle tracking?”
CrowdTangle is a public insights software from Facebook that helps publishers, journalists, researchers, fact-checkers and extra comply with, analyze, and report on what’s occurring throughout social media. We do this by making public content material from Pages, Groups, Instagram accounts, and fashionable subreddits extra discoverable, and engagement information on that content material, (i.e. shares, views, feedback, and reactions) simple to type by at scale. CrowdTangle doesn’t observe content material from common Facebook profiles.
The top-performing hyperlink posts by U.S. Facebook pages within the final 24 hours are from:
1. NBC News
2. Breitbart
3. NPR
4. People Royals
5. Fox News
6. allkpop
7. MAURY
8. KOLO 8 News Now
9. Still Moments
10. TMZ— Facebook’s Top 10 (@FacebooksTop10) June 23, 2022
In a Twitter thread, Facebook’s head of the News Feed, John Hegeman, argued that Roose’s daily Top 10 lists (compiled based mostly on CrowdTangle information) present correct engagement information however “don’t represent what most people see on FB.” He claims a greater manner to show that will be by information exhibiting which posts get essentially the most attain, however the firm doesn’t often share that information immediately.
When Facebook bought CrowdTangle in 2016, it mentioned the software may assist publishers “surface stories that matter, measure their social performance and identify influencers.” It tracks the efficiency of tales throughout different networks, together with Instagram and Twitter. The Bloomberg report cites how voter advocacy group Common Cause has used it to discover misinformation in actual time that it has flagged to Twitter and Facebook for removing.
Today’s report says Meta started an official course of to shut down the software in February however paused it due to the EU’s Digital Services Act push. Now it’s mentioned to be on observe for a shut down “eventually,” with Facebook engineers already assigned to the duty. An organization spokesperson instructed Bloomberg that CrowdTangle would stay energetic at the very least by this yr’s midterm elections and claimed Meta has plans to present “even more valuable” instruments for researchers.
