New AI Tool Arbiter Aims to Replace Meta's CrowdTangle

In 2024, Meta discontinued CrowdTangle, a critical tool that enabled journalists, fact-checkers, and researchers to monitor content dissemination across Facebook and Instagram for over a decade. This closure has created a significant gap in the ability to track viral content and the spread of misinformation. Meta's divestment from CrowdTangle was a gradual process, marked by years of reduced funding, team dissolutions, and user restrictions. The final announcement in March 2024, stating operations would cease in August, prompted a petition signed by over 100 social media watchdog groups. These groups warned that the shutdown would effectively silence nearly all external efforts to identify and combat political disinformation, incitements to violence, and online harassment targeting women and minorities.

Arbiter has emerged as a leading project attempting to address this void by leveraging advanced AI technologies. The platform utilizes large language models (LLMs) and AI agents to collect and analyze posts from various social media platforms at scale. Its data acquisition strategy involves drawing information from social media APIs, academic data repositories, and third-party data scraping companies. Arbiter's current operational scope encompasses a wide array of social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X), YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, Bluesky, and 4chan. This broad coverage is designed to provide a comprehensive view of online content trends and potential issues.

At the beginning of 2024, Arbiter commenced onboarding its initial cohort of news organizations. These early adopters include prominent entities such as the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW), the Argentine fact-checking organization Chequeado, and the Filipino news site Rappler. To date, over 100 organizations have registered to use the platform, indicating a strong demand for its analytical capabilities. The need for independent mechanisms to scrutinize social media content is paramount for journalists reporting on harmful material distributed online. Swapneel Mehta, co-founder and president of SimPPL, a nonprofit organization, emphasized this necessity, stating, "We need independent mechanisms because it’s often been the case that incentive structures have clashed, and then good work that was done got washed away." Arbiter's development is thus positioned as a crucial step in restoring independent oversight to the social media landscape, providing researchers and journalists with the tools necessary to conduct their work effectively and without reliance on the platforms themselves.