Meta kills a powerful transparency tool ahead of Election Day
Facebook’s parent company announced the death of CrowdTangle, an industry-leading platform that showed the platform's most viral posts
Yesterday, Facebook’s parent company, Meta, announced that it will soon sunset a critical transparency software used by journalists and researchers to track viral post engagement and page growth on its platforms. In an email to users, the company stated that its CrowdTangle tool will no longer be available after August 14th, 2024 - just twelve weeks out from Election Day.
While the company previously told us this day would eventually come, this is a major setback for everyone who cares about tech platform transparency and stemming the flow of political misinformation. We’ll break down why it matters in this week’s FWIW. But first….
By the numbers
FWIW, political advertisers spent just over $10.4 million on Facebook and Instagram ads last week. These were the top ten spenders nationwide:
Capitalizing on the success of his energetic State of the Union performance last week, President Biden’s team has launched a massive online advertising campaign to take over various corners of the internet. They spent nearly $800,000 on Facebook and Instagram alone, where they’re targeting voters with messaging about lowering healthcare costs, protecting women’s reproductive rights, and contrasting his positions with Donald Trump. You can scroll through their latest ads here >>
Most of these ads target voters in eight core swing states (Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, New Hampshire, and North Carolina) and blue-leaning Minnesota. They are also targeting Nebraska and Maine, where a couple of electoral votes will be on the table in November.
In addition to Facebook and Instagram, the Biden campaign has bought takeovers of different online sites and platforms, blanketing the Roku homepage in several swing states and chasing the President’s campaign stops with homepage advertising on local news sites.
Meanwhile, political campaigns spent $4.7 million on Google and YouTube ads last week. Here were the top ten spenders nationwide:
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), running for re-election in battleground Wisconsin, is up with new ads on YouTube touting her efforts to support American manufacturing. Her latest video ad nods to American competition with China and highlights her work with Trump and Biden to pass legislation for Wisconsinites.
On Snapchat, political advertisers in the U.S. have spent $429,800 on ads year to date. Here are the top spenders:
…and lastly, here are the top spending political advertisers on X (formerly Twitter) in 2024:
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Your 2024 digital dispatch
FWIW, here’s how weekly digital ad spending (Facebook/Instagram, Google/YouTube) compares between the Trump and Biden campaigns year-to-date:
As I noted above, the Biden campaign spent more last week than in any other seven-day period this year. To date, they’ve outspent the Trump campaign by $9.1 million to $1.2 million on Facebook, Instagram, Google, and YouTube.
Are the vibes shifting?
After President Biden’s solid State of the Union address last week, it seems like the mainstream media's pessimism about his candidacy may be starting to wane. If this election is about vibes, is this the beginning of a vibe shift? Brian Derrick, Glennis Meagher, and Keith Edwards break down Biden’s new momentum + more in this week’s episode of Vibes Only. Listen here >>
Meta kills key transparency tool ahead of November
Yesterday, Facebook’s parent company, Meta, announced that it will soon sunset a critical transparency software used by journalists and researchers to track viral post engagement and page growth on its platforms. In an email to users, the company stated that its CrowdTangle tool will no longer be available after August 14th, 2024 - just twelve weeks out from Election Day.
While the company previously told us this day would eventually come, this is a major setback for everyone who cares about tech platform transparency and stemming the flow of political misinformation. Here’s why:
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