As Meta shuts down vital transparency tool, Senators Coons, Cassidy condemn company for refusal to keep program running

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.) today condemned Meta’s response to their bipartisan and bicameral letter sent to the company last month, which urged Meta to delay its decision to shut down CrowdTangle. CrowdTangle is a Meta-owned transparency tool used by researchers and journalists to monitor public content on Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms. The company shut down CrowdTangle today.

“I am disappointed that Meta ended access to an important social media transparency tool right before a critical election, despite bipartisan and bicameral support for an extension,” said Senator Coons. “I am further troubled that Meta provided no meaningful response to the specific questions my colleagues and I raised. Meta’s unwillingness to provide meaningful transparency on its own demonstrates why it’s so important that the Senate takes up and passes my Platform Accountability and Transparency Act.”

“Meta’s response only highlights the need for more oversight and scrutiny of Big Tech,” said Senator Cassidy. “They dodged our questions because they felt they could. If they need a reason to comply with Congress, let’s pass our Platform Accountability and Transparency Act and give them one.”

Last month, Senators Coons and Cassidy and 15 of their congressional colleagues sent a letter to Meta raising concerns about Meta’s decision to end access to CrowdTangle, which is no longer available as of today, August 14, 2024. The signatories asked Meta to delay the move by six months. 

The signatories asked several questions as to why Meta is pulling the plug on this tool at such a critical time, during which the United States faces national security threats, the imminent effects of social media on our children and their mental health, the expansion of generative artificial intelligence, and upcoming elections across the world – none of which was meaningfully answered by the company in its response. 

In a response issued this week, Meta refused to extend the life of CrowdTangle, pointing to its Meta Content Library and Content Library API as its proffered replacement. However, as the letter from Senators Coons, Cassidy, and others detailed, Meta Content Library has a number of specific limitations that make it unsuitable as a replacement for CrowdTangle at the current time. Meta’s letter failed to even engage with these concerns, and Meta did not address the requests for information regarding how many entities have access to Meta Content Library, given reported long delays and hurdles in obtaining access. Among other limitations – unlike CrowdTangle – the new tool will not be accessible to for-profit news organizations, significantly curtailing its value.

Last year, Senators Coons and Cassidy, along with Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) introduced the bipartisan Platform Accountability and Transparency Act (PATA), a bill that would require social media companies to be more transparent with the public and researchers. A section of PATA would specifically require major platforms to make a tool like CrowdTangle widely available to study public content. In light of the shutdown of CrowdTangle, Senators Coons and Cassidy urged the Senate to take up PATA so researchers and the public have the data they need to study the impact social media platforms have on our society.

You can read the full letter to Meta here. 

You can read Meta’s full response here.