Meta has discontinued CrowdTangle, a tool used for monitoring disinformation.

Critics argue that Meta's replacement for CrowdTangle has just "1% of the features." Journalists, researchers, and politicians are expressing concern over Meta’s decision to shut down CrowdTangle, a tool they relied on to monitor the spread of disinformation on Facebook and Instagram. Meta has introduced the Content Library as a substitute, but access is restricted to individuals from “qualified academic or nonprofit institutions” who are conducting scientific or public interest research. This move excludes many researchers, academics, and most journalists, who report that the Content Library is less transparent, less accessible, offers fewer features, and has a poorer user experience. Numerous community members have penned open letters to Meta, questioning the decision to eliminate a valuable tool for combating misinformation just months before a highly contentious U.S. election—an election already threatened by the spread of AI deepfakes and chatbot misinformation, some of which originated from Meta’s own chatbot. Meta has provided limited explanations. During an MIT Technology Review conference in May, Meta’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, was asked why CrowdTangle wasn't kept until after the election. Clegg described CrowdTangle as a "degrading tool" that offers incomplete and inaccurate insights into Facebook activity, saying it only measures “a narrow cakeslice of a cake slice” and fails to reveal what people are actually seeing online.