CrowdTangle, a social media tool used to track popular story posts for things like misinformation, has been shut down by Meta.
Meta, which owns CrowdTangle, has opted to remove support for CrowdTangle from Facebook, according to a report from Bloomberg. The removal of CrowdTangle will prevent stories containing misinformation from spreading as popular posts on the platform.
CrowdTangle also tracks the performance of stories on Instagram and Twitter stories. Facebook bought CrowdTangle back in 2016 in an effort to measure its “social performance and identify influencers.”
Facebook has a history of helping to spread fake news stories, including through a News Feed test in 2018.
Meta’s official starting time to shut down CrowdTangle was in February 2022, as it told Bloomberg it would stay active through the 2022 midterm elections and plans to provide researchers with “even more valuable tools.”
