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Facebook buys CrowdTangle to boost content insights for publishers

CrowdTangle's platform helps businesses measure social performance, and identify traffic-generating content and social influencers.
Written by Natalie Gagliordi, Contributor
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Image: CrowdTangle

Facebook is buying CrowdTangle, a startup behind the eponymous social analytics tool used by online media publishers to track performance. Terms of the deal were not immediately disclosed, but at this point it appears that CrowdTangle will continue to operate within Facebook.

CrowdTangle got its start in 2011 by utilizing Facebook's public API to design a product that analyzed social data. The CrowdTangle platform has iterated a few times and now functions as a sort of stethoscope on the heartbeat of the social web.

CrowdTangle's real-time dashboards, visualizations, and custom notifications help businesses measure social performance, identify traffic-generating content, and identify social influencers. Beyond Facebook, CrowdTangle can track content across platforms such as Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, and YouTube.

"We think Facebook is the single most powerful platform in the world in connecting people to each other and to stories they care about," CrowdTangle said on its website. "And at a time when there is a revolution taking place in how people connect with the world, our team is passionate about building tools that help publishers get the data and insights they need to succeed."

The acquisition announcement comes shortly after CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended Facebook's influence in the 2016 election. The social networking giant has been criticized for inadvertently proliferating fake news through News Feed, which some in Silicon Valley have blamed for the election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States.

Zuckerberg says the accusations are off base.

"To think it influenced the election in any way is a pretty crazy idea," Zuckerberg said Thursday during an appearance at the Techonomy conference in Half Moon Bay, Calif. "Voters make decisions based on their lived experience."

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