Meta announced that CrowdTangle will be discontinued on August 14, as the company shifts its focus towards developing new research tools.

Until then, users can still access CrowdTangle and its Chrome Extension, with data updating in real-time. However, during this period, no new users can be added to accounts as the platform will be in maintenance mode.

Why we care. Marketers and publishers who depend on CrowdTangle for trend analysis, post monitoring, and analytics will need to seek alternative tools as the platform is being phased out.

What’s changing? From August 14, access to CrowdTangle’s User Interface, API, Chrome Extension, and Historical Data feature will be discontinued.

API rate limits. The CrowdTangle API rate limits will stay the same until the tool is deprecated.

Alternatives. Advertisers can still utilize Insights within Meta Business Suite (MBS) following the deprecation of CrowdTangle. Additionally, they have the option to collaborate with third-party providers that offer social listening capabilities built on top of Meta’s APIs.

Why now? CrowdTangle faced accusations in 2021 of providing misleading data about Meta’s apps’ role in spreading divisive political content. A bot account on X, originally created by New York Times journalist Kevin Roose, regularly highlighted the most popular Facebook posts based on data from Meta’s CrowdTangle platform. These posts often focused on right-wing spokespeople and Pages, making people think Facebook’s algorithms boosted such content.

In response, Facebook disbanded the CrowdTangle team in July 2021 following a disagreement over the content displayed by the app. Despite expectations of the project’s end, CrowdTangle continued offering data insights to users. Since then, rumors have circulated about Meta planning to sunset the platform, and now, those rumors have been confirmed.

What Meta is saying. Meta said in a statement:

• “Our data-sharing products are evolving alongside technology and regulatory changes. Phasing out CrowdTangle will allow us to focus resources on our new research tools, Meta Content Library & Content Library API, which provide useful, high-quality data to researchers.”
• “Meta Content Library was designed to help us meet new regulatory requirements for data-sharing and transparency while meeting Meta’s rigorous privacy and security standards.”

Deep dive. Read Meta’s announcement in full for more information.