All current and future fact-checking organizations in the International Fact-Checking Network will now get free access to CrowdTangle, a powerful social media analysis tool.
This comes a month after the IFCN partnered with the platform to offer free access to researchers looking to study data collected in the CoronaVirusFacts Alliance Database, which so far has compiled nearly 7,000 fact checks in over 40 languages from organizations in over 70 countries.
“The International Fact-Checking Network is dedicated to making resources and tools available for the fact-checking community and proud to offer access to CrowdTangle, a leading resource in detecting misinformation, to it’s verified signatories,” said IFCN Director Baybars Orsek.
Previously this was available only to organizations taking part in Facebook’s Third-Party Fact-Checking program (3PFC), but now the platform is being opened to the entire signatory community. Facebook requires its fact-checking partners to be Code of Principles signatories before they can work with the company. That means fact-checking organizations must be vetted by the IFCN before they can work with Facebook. You can read about the whole process here.
CrowdTangle allows users to monitor trends and social media interactions across multiple platforms. It had previously been used as a tool for social media marketing, but recently added features have made it a powerful weapon for fact-checking organizations across the world. Fact-checkers can monitor trends around certain keywords, track the changes of public Facebook pages and filter search results by country and language.
“One of our priorities has long been to work with fact-checkers and provide them public, privacy-safe data to better understand how news and information spreads on social media,” said Chris Miles, CrowdTangle partnerships manager. “We’re excited to partner more deeply with IFCN to share more resources, transparency, direct training and support for their critical work around the world.”
Fact-checkers outside the 3PFC program could previously make use of its free browser extension. The feature enables users to survey an individual web page’s Facebook interactions such as likes, comments and shares, as well as how many people are sharing that content on Twitter, Instagram and Reddit. However, the browser extension is limited to one web page at a time and doesn’t allow the user to see broader overall trends.
CrowdTangle will also be partnering with the IFCN to help on-board and train fact-checking networks on its tools. A team from the company will join a training session during the private track of the virtual Global Fact 7 conference on Tuesday, June 30.
You can read more about the IFCN’s partnership with CrowdTangle here.
