Meta’s decision to close CrowdTangle, an analytics tool that is an “indispensable” resource for the research community, is drawing new scrutiny from European Union regulators. The EU Commission, which has already expressed concerns about the social network’s plan to stop the tool ahead of global elections in 2024, has now Click the meta button for more information about the work with the researchers.
The EU Commission previously cited the impending closure of CrowdTangle more extensive research the company’s handling of disinformation campaigns and election-related policies. Now, a few days after CrowdTangle shut down despite pleas from researchers and civil society organizations to keep online until the end of the year, regulators are reminding Meta of its “obligation” under the Digital Services Act (DSA) to allow outside researchers to access their data.
“The Commission requests Meta to provide more information on the measures it has taken and its plans to comply with its commitment to provide researchers with access to publicly available information on the online interface of Facebook and Instagram, as requested by the DSA. to update election and civil discourse monitoring functions,” the EU Commission said in a statement. “Specifically, the Commission requests information about Meta’s content library and application programming interface (API), including their eligibility criteria, application process, accessible data and functionalities.”
Meta previously pointed to the Meta Content Library as a replacement for CrowdTangle. But access to the Meta Content Library is more tightly controlled, and the researchers said it doesn’t replicate all of CrowdTangle’s functionality.
“We announced earlier this year that we would be discontinuing CrowdTangle because it doesn’t provide a complete picture of what’s happening on our platforms,” a Meta spokesperson told Engadget. We have called the Meta Content Library and API and we are discussing this issue with the European Commission.
Update August 16, 2024, 3:15 PM ET: This story has been updated to add a statement from Meta.
