Meta’s decision to shut down CrowdTangle, an analytics tool that was an “invaluable” resource to the research community, is drawing fresh scrutiny from European Union regulators. The EU Commission, which had already raised concerns about the social network’s plan to discontinue the tool ahead of global elections in 2024, is now pressing Meta for more details about its work with researchers.
The EU Commission previously cited the impending shutdown of CrowdTangle as part of a broader investigation into the company’s handling of disinformation campaigns and election-related policies. Now, just days after CrowdTangle was shut off despite pleas from researchers and civil society organizations to keep it online through the end of the year, regulators are pointedly reminding Meta of its “obligation” under the Digital Services Act (DSA) to allow outside researchers access to its data.
“The Commission is requesting Meta to provide more information on the measures it has taken to comply with its obligations to give researchers access to data that is publicly accessible on the online interface of Facebook and Instagram, as required by the DSA, and on its plans to update its election and civic discourse monitoring functionalities,” the EU Commission wrote in a statement. “Specifically, the Commission is requesting information about Meta’s content library and application programming interface (API), including their eligibility criteria, the application process, the data that can be accessed and functionalities.”
Meta has previously pointed to the Meta Content Library as a replacement for CrowdTangle. But access to the Meta Content Library is much more tightly controlled, and researchers have said it doesn’t replicate all of CrowdTangle’s functionality.
“We announced earlier this year that we would discontinue CrowdTangle because it did not provide a complete picture of what is happening on our platforms,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement to Engadget. “We have built new, more comprehensive tools for researchers, called the Meta Content Library & API, and we remain in discussion with the European Commission on this matter.”
Update August 16, 2024, 3:15PM ET: This story has been updated to add a statement from Meta.
