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CrowdTangle for Academics and Researchers
CrowdTangle for Academics and Researchers

Learn more and apply to join our program

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Written by Christina Fan
Updated over a week ago

CrowdTangle started a pilot program in 2019 to partner with researchers and academics to help them study the spread of public content on Facebook and Instagram. In that time, researchers have used CrowdTangle to report on and analyze critical topics such as racial justice, misinformation and abuse of social platforms. Now, CrowdTangle is opening up applications further to university researchers.

We will continually support more of this community, and will update this page as we expand our support into new areas.

Apply to Access CrowdTangle

Apply to be part of CrowdTangle’s Academics & Researchers program and get access to the CrowdTangle interface and API, as well as training and resources. Before applying, learn more about how Academics & Researchers use CrowdTangle here. We’re currently prioritizing university researchers (faculty, PhD students, post-doctoral research fellows) focused on:

  • Misinformation

  • Elections

  • COVID-19

  • Racial justice

  • Well-being

“CrowdTangle gave us a much more in-depth understanding of the content we were researching... Thanks to CrowdTangle, we now know a lot more about coordinated inauthentic link sharing strategies, and have even more new hypotheses that we want to test.”

Fabio Giglietto, Associate Professor, University of Urbino

"Since being on-boarded to the CrowdTangle platform, the ISD team have been able to analyze how disinformation and extremist content is promoted and engaged with on public Facebook pages and groups. This helps us to build a more comprehensive picture of how disinformation and extremist campaigns travel across the ecosystem of platforms and websites used by groups spreading disinformation and extremist content, and to understand where different platforms fit into their online strategies."

Chloe Colliver, research manager and digital analysis unit lead at ISD

For existing CrowdTangle academics and researchers, we have additional resources available.

Case Study: Using CrowdTangle for Research

Recently Published Articles Using CrowdTangle

FAQs

Q. Who can apply for CrowdTangle access as part of the Academics & Researchers program?

University-based researchers may apply using the form above. Research NGOs can email support@crowdtangle.com to inquire about access. We cannot provide access to for-profit companies or government entities.

Q. Can anyone at a university apply for CrowdTangle access?

No. Only faculty, PhD students and post-docs can apply for access. If their application is accepted, then research assistants on a project led by the applicant may also have access for the duration of their time on the project.

Q. Can I apply to use CrowdTangle as a teaching tool?

Unfortunately not. CrowdTangle is currently only available to support research. However, you can provide the CrowdTangle Chrome Extension to your students for classroom use, and make some of your research available to students via Live Displays or Notifications.

Q. I’m not researching any of the categories listed above. Can I apply anyway?

We cannot currently provide access for research topics not listed above.

Q. What’s included with CrowdTangle access?

Access to the CrowdTangle interface and API, as well as training and resources.

Q. What data does CrowdTangle track?

CrowdTangle tracks data from public content across Facebook Pages and Groups, as well as Verified Profiles and public Instagram accounts. A full description of the data CrowdTangle is tracking is available here.

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