TELL META: Don’t Kill Your Crucial Transparency Tool, CrowdTangle!

Meta has announced it will be abandoning CrowdTangle, its industry leading transparency tool, this August - in the middle of the biggest election year on record.

CrowdTangle is used by thousands of researchers, journalists and advocates to monitor political disinformation and hate speech on Facebook and Instagram.

The decision to kill this crucial tool without an equivalent replacement couldn’t come at a worse time: Elections affecting approximately half of the world’s population are taking place this year. Meta’s irresponsible decision poses a direct threat to our ability to safeguard the integrity of these elections - but we can still stop it.

Sign the petition now to call on Meta to maintain CrowdTangle during this critical period of elections worldwide to protect election integrity in 2024 and beyond!

  • Gamers_Mate@kbin.run
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    7 months ago

    Meta abandoning CrowdTangle during an election year has the same vibe as an officer turning off a body camera right before a confrontation.

  • Guntrigger@sopuli.xyz
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    7 months ago

    What a surprise, the company that has been proven to sway the course of elections for profit might well do it again!

      • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Nice!

        I did not, though my facebook is deleted now. I just got sick of how it was making me miserable every time I opened it, so a year ago I nuked it.

        I still have an instagram for my business, but once I have Cara up and running, I’m going to delete all the content there as well.

    • QuizzaciousOtter@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      Finally did it a few months back. I’m slowly degoogling too, although I’m afraid I won’t be ready to cut all ties for a bit more time.

      It’s really sad that tech ended up like this. It all seemed so exciting not that long ago.

      • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Same, doing what I can within my own little slice of the world.

        I actually switched to Linux Mint two weeks ago and do 95% of my computing on that OS. (And ANYTHING requiring privacy) I’m a gamer, so I opted for a dual boot, and the only thing I use windows for is playing my games now.

        • laurelraven@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          7 months ago

          I did the same a couple months ago, though when I built that system I put in two drives for the dual boot… And never got around to installing Windows. I think I’ll use the second drive for something else, don’t know what yet.

          Have had almost no issues with gaming

          • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            Glad to hear it!

            For me it’s been hit or miss. I’m fairly tech savvy and able to work through things with the info on Proton DB, but I’ve had several games that just simply weren’t compatible.

  • oce 🐆@jlai.lu
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    7 months ago

    If they are capable of taking this decision during such an important time, why would an internet petition change their views? The only way to have them do it is regulation that will hurt their turnover if they don’t comply.

  • djsaskdja@reddthat.com
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    7 months ago

    In what way is this year the biggest election year on record? It’s literally the exact same candidates as it was 4 years ago.

    • TheUnicornOfPerfidy@feddit.uk
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      7 months ago

      There are other countries in the world that have elections apart from the US. More of them than ever before in one year are having them in 2024.

    • TimLovesTech (AuDHD)(he/him)@badatbeing.social
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      7 months ago

      I know I’m feeding a troll, but US democracy is on the ballot this year. Previous years have been big years, but this could be the last election in the US. Trump getting to the White House will allow him to save himself, and he will be bringing Fascism to a whole new level in the US with Project 2025 and all the truly evil folks in his cult leadership circle.

        • Zannsolo@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          I mean one of the candidates is a convicted felon that worships dictators and has said he will go after political rivals and that he’d be a dictator for a day.

          • djsaskdja@reddthat.com
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            7 months ago

            He said he’d build a wall and Mexico would pay for it and that never happened either. Trump says a lot of stupid shit. It’s weird that he’s taken so seriously.

            • TimLovesTech (AuDHD)(he/him)@badatbeing.social
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              7 months ago

              He’s shown you who he is, I think we need to start believing him. He has also surrounded himself with even more unhinged and dangerous people this time around. They have a plan this time to keep power and end elections. Putting your head in the sand doesn’t make him and his cult any less of a threat, and plays right into their playbook. They want you to become disengaged, to burn out, to think he is “just joking”, or just “telling it how he sees it”, or worst of all “the new normal”. These all leave his cult emboldened and with less resistance to grabbing power.

              • djsaskdja@reddthat.com
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                7 months ago

                It’s not like if Trump loses his supporters suddenly go away. These people will be right back here in 2028 trying the same shit. Hyping up every election like we’re on knife’s edge is so disingenuous. Especially when the opposing candidates are completely out of touch ghouls like Clinton and Biden. Personally I’m content to sit back and watch it all burn. We’re headed down a shit trajectory no matter who’s in office. There’s no hope for a good future unless we burn it all down anyway.

    • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      The US population increased by 0.5% in 2023, adding more than 1.6 million people to reach a total of 334,914,895.