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A bipartisan group of 17 lawmakers are urging Meta not to be too hasty in closing down its CrowdTangle transparency tool.
In a Wednesday letter, the members, including Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.), argue that CrowdTangle is a "powerful transparency tool...to help the public analyze and understand content that is being widely disseminated on Facebook and other platforms."
After acquiring CrowdTangle in 2016, Meta said it will shut down the tool on Aug. 14 "to focus resources on our new research tools, Meta Content Library & Content Library API."
Lawmakers, however, want Meta to postpone the shutdown for six months "at a minimum" and "provide further information about its plans and commitment to ensure sufficient transparency for independent research going forward."
CrowdTangle allows publishers, journalists, researchers, and fact-checkers to access a treasure trove of data posted to Facebook Pages, Group, Instagram accounts, and—before API access was restricted—Twitter/X and Reddit. Lawmakers say the tool has helped researchers uncover bad actors across Meta's social platforms, including a Russia-linked influence operation in Africa.
"CrowdTangle data has been the basis of hundreds of academic research papers (including in Nature and Science) and has been referenced in thousands of news articles by journalists reporting on social media and other topics," the letter continues.
"The imperative to understand how social media platforms are affecting society has never been greater than it is today," it adds. "Meta (like other platforms) has a responsibility to ensure that the public, independent researchers, journalists, and policymakers can study and address the impact that platforms and their algorithms are having in these and other dimensions, in both positive and negative ways."
The letters says the Meta Content Library is more limited than CrowdTangle and may make it harder to find the correct data, even if it offers more information overall.
"Meta has further restricted the ability to access Meta Content Library compared with the types of individuals and organizations who have had access to CrowdTangle, and eligible researchers report a months, if not years, long process to obtain access to Meta Content Library and to develop the necessary integrations with a new tool suite, particularly as the functionality continues to be updated," the letter says.
The lawmakers want Meta to answer questions about these concerns no later than Aug. 12.