Facebook Knifes Its Own Analytics Tool to Hide Its Ben Shapiro Problem

Facebook gutted its data analytics tool, CrowdTangle, by reassigning dozens of its staff and sidelining its CEO after its data showed that incendiary screeds and misleading content from right-wing pages regularly outperform traditional news outlets on the News Feed, according to the New York Times.

A slew of other articles in the media, as well as academic and nonprofit researchers, were citing CrowdTangle data in a series of unflattering stories on just why Facebook was so deluged with right-wing content.

Eventually, according to the Times, Facebook executives began considering that instead of making counter-arguments (or God forbid, doing anything to fix the problem) they could try to make it go away by sticking a knife in CrowdTangle’s back.

CrowdTangle is still available despite its reportedly ravaged staff, and two people involved with the company’s plans told the Times that they don’t believe Facebook is planning to take it down anytime soon.