Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is facing criticism for its decision to shut down CrowdTangle, a tool deemed indispensable for monitoring misinformation, especially ahead of major US elections. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernard Sanders have criticized Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for the company's secrecy surrounding content moderation and censorship, particularly of Palestinian-related content. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has called on Meta to implement the Oversight Board's policy recommendations to respect freedom of expression. Senator Chris Coons expressed concern about the impact of ending CrowdTangle on transparency, advocating for his bipartisan Platform Accountability and Transparency Act to ensure platforms make such tools available. Meta has denied discriminating against Palestinian content, despite inquiries from lawmakers and reports from Human Rights Watch indicating suppression of over 1,000 expressions of peaceful support for Palestinians. The decision to abandon CrowdTangle, with no equal replacement, has been met with calls from various organizations, including Mozilla, for Meta to reconsider.
“Meta insists that there’s been no discrimination against Palestinian-related content on their [Facebook and Instagram] platforms, but at the same time, is refusing to provide us with any evidence or data to support that claim." -- @SenWarren. https://t.co/62F7U7QyAa
.@Meta has made a decision that will have an incredible impact on the billions of people set to go to the polls this year. This summer, Meta will abandon its transparency tool CrowdTangle with no equal replacement. We’re calling on Meta to reconsider: https://t.co/C0LXnF28vV
Meta to abandon social media tracking tool CrowdTangle https://t.co/CYaLLtKZQE
The lawmakers mentioned that a report completed by Human Rights Watch in December revealed that Meta suppressed or removed over 1,000 expressions of peaceful support of Palestinians on Instagram and Facebook the two previous months. https://t.co/DUKM1utcUD
"When asked whether #Instagram deleted captions or suppressed the creation and use of new hashtags, #Meta declined to comment and sent us to a help page on deleted posts": https://t.co/fh6TpE7Mgd #ethics #socialmedia #contentmoderation #research #business
.@Meta insists there’s been no discrimination against Palestinian-related content on their platforms, but refuses to show information to support that claim. If its ad-hoc changes to content practices & removal of millions of posts wasn't discriminatory, then what’s Meta hiding? https://t.co/tNB8v0rA4H
Meta has denied any discrimination against any Palestinian content. https://t.co/DUKM1utcUD
“It is imperative that Meta provide this information so the American people and their elected representatives can understand the impact of Meta’s policies on those communities and public debate.” https://t.co/DUKM1utcUD
Ms. Warren also asked for a list of every instance in the past five years that Meta changed the content-moderation threshold for a specific region and how many posts were removed because of the change. https://t.co/DUKM1utcUD
In a follow-up to a December letter sent by Ms. Warren, Massachusetts Democrat, the two lawmakers inquired about the policies the company uses to determine what information gets censored. https://t.co/DUKM1utcUD
CrowdTangle has been indispensable to understand what is happening on Facebook, and I’m concerned about what its end will mean for the future of transparency. My bipartisan Platform Accountability and Transparency Act would ensure platforms make these important tools available. https://t.co/sGaVxD7HYk
EFF calls on Meta to implement the Oversight Board’s latest policy recommendations and ensure that future policies and practices respect freedom of expression https://t.co/KrEQvUprrv
Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernard Sanders on Tuesday criticized Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for his secrecy surrounding the technology company's content moderation and censorship of Palestinian-related content on Instagram and Facebook. https://t.co/U3v8YhFhus
#FPTech: Meta to shut down crucial, misinformation monitoring tool ahead of major US elections https://t.co/jEfxWd9viR