# Two years ago, Meta killed CrowdTangle. Can a new AI tool fill the void?

> When Meta shut down CrowdTangle in 2024, it removed one of the few windows researchers, journalists, and fact-checkers had into how content spreads across Facebook and Instagram. Nieman Lab looks at whether a new AI-powered tool can rebuild that lost capability, letting outsiders once again track viral posts, coordinated campaigns, and misinformation at scale. The stakes are higher than a single missing dashboard. CrowdTangle was widely used to study elections, health rumors, and harassment, and its removal left a gap during a period when platforms have grown less transparent. An AI tool that can sift through public posts and surface patterns could partially restore that oversight, though it raises its own questions about accuracy, access, and who controls the data. The bigger theme is dependence. Independent accountability increasingly relies on tools that platforms can revoke at will, and building AI alternatives is one way researchers are trying to reduce that leverage and keep studying the networks that shape public conversation.

_Section: [Daily AI Updates](https://www.wortins.com/daily-ai) · Source: Nieman Lab · Published Wednesday, September 9, 2026_

## Wortins' read

When Meta shut down CrowdTangle in 2024, it removed one of the few windows researchers, journalists, and fact-checkers had into how content spreads across Facebook and Instagram. Nieman Lab looks at whether a new AI-powered tool can rebuild that lost capability, letting outsiders once again track viral posts, coordinated campaigns, and misinformation at scale. The stakes are higher than a single missing dashboard. CrowdTangle was widely used to study elections, health rumors, and harassment, and its removal left a gap during a period when platforms have grown less transparent. An AI tool that can sift through public posts and surface patterns could partially restore that oversight, though it raises its own questions about accuracy, access, and who controls the data. The bigger theme is dependence. Independent accountability increasingly relies on tools that platforms can revoke at will, and building AI alternatives is one way researchers are trying to reduce that leverage and keep studying the networks that shape public conversation.

## Source

[Read the full story at Nieman Lab](https://www.niemanlab.org/2026/09/two-years-ago-meta-killed-crowdtangle-can-a-new-ai-tool-fill-the-void/)

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