BSmeter vs CrowdTangle
CrowdTangle was Meta's public-insights tool: it let journalists, researchers, and fact-checkers build dashboards and leaderboards over public Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit accounts and see what content was spreading, ranked by engagement. It was excellent at finding the story — but it deliberately never told you whether a post was true; that judgment was left to the humans using it. BSmeter does the other half: you give it a video or podcast link, and it transcribes the audio, pulls out every verifiable claim, and scores each one 0-100 against live web sources. Meta shut CrowdTangle down on August 14, 2024.
BSmeter vs CrowdTangle: side by side
| Feature | BSmeter | CrowdTangle |
|---|---|---|
| Primary job | Verification — determine whether the claims inside a specific video or podcast hold up | Discovery and monitoring — find what content is spreading across public Meta and Reddit accounts, and how fast |
| Tells you whether a claim is actually true | Yes — 0-100 credibility score per extracted claim, each with linked cross-referenced sources | No, by design — CrowdTangle reported engagement (reactions, comments, shares) and reach. Truth assessment was left to the journalist or fact-checker using it |
| Video and audio content | Transcribes the audio, extracts claims from what is actually said, and checks each one. Also flags logical fallacies and deepfake/AI-media signals | Tracked video posts as objects and measured their engagement, but did not transcribe speech or analyze claims within the video |
| Platform coverage | YouTube, TikTok, Instagram Reels, and podcasts — link-based or via the Chrome/Firefox extension | Public pages, groups, and accounts across Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit — depth on Meta surfaces that no third-party tool has matched since |
| Historical data, leaderboards, and API | None — BSmeter analyzes one piece of content at a time and has no trend, benchmarking, or bulk-export layer | Core strength — custom lists and dashboards, historical archives, leaderboards, saved searches, alerts, and API access for approved partners |
| Availability and who can use it | Live and open to anyone. Free tier; Basic $3.99/mo; Premium $8.99/mo | Retired August 14, 2024. While it ran, access was granted to approved publishers, researchers, and fact-checkers rather than sold self-serve |
Where BSmeter wins
- It answers the question CrowdTangle never tried to: not 'how far did this travel?' but 'is any of it true?' — a 0-100 score per claim with the evidence linked, so you can check the sourcing yourself.
- It reads video and audio as speech, not as a post with a like count. Transcription plus claim extraction means a 40-minute podcast or a 30-second Reel gets checked on what was actually said — including fallacy flags and deepfake/AI-media signals.
- It's available right now, to anyone, with no institutional affiliation, IRB approval, or partner application. CrowdTangle's access was gated to approved organizations, and its Meta successor narrowed eligibility further.
Where CrowdTangle is stronger
- Unmatched visibility into Meta's own platforms. As a first-party Meta tool, CrowdTangle had public-post data across Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit at a depth no outside tool could replicate — which is exactly why researchers fought so hard to keep it.
- A genuinely great discovery and monitoring workflow: custom lists, real-time dashboards, leaderboards, flexible search across keywords, hashtags, and URLs, plus alerts and API access. It found stories before they broke.
- It powered real accountability journalism — election monitoring, tracking health misinformation during the pandemic, and the Link Checker extension that showed who was amplifying any given URL. Its shutdown was protested by researchers and civil-society groups precisely because it worked.
Anyone who has a specific video, Reel, or podcast in front of them and wants to know whether the claims in it survive contact with the evidence — viewers, students, journalists spot-checking a source, and creators pressure-testing their own scripts.
Researchers, newsrooms, and fact-checking organizations who need to see what's spreading across public social accounts at scale, with historical trends and engagement benchmarks. That job now belongs to Meta Content Library or third-party monitoring tools — CrowdTangle itself is no longer available.
The verdict
Be clear about this: BSmeter is not a CrowdTangle replacement, and we won't pretend otherwise. CrowdTangle was a monitoring and discovery platform — it found what was spreading; it never claimed to judge truth. If that's the hole you're trying to fill, look at Meta Content Library (access-restricted to qualified academic and nonprofit researchers) or third-party social monitoring tools. BSmeter handles the step after discovery: once you've found the video that's blowing up, it transcribes it, extracts the claims, and scores each against live sources. Different halves of the same workflow — and only one of them still exists.
BSmeter vs CrowdTangle: FAQ
Is BSmeter a CrowdTangle alternative?▾
Honestly, no — not for CrowdTangle's actual job. CrowdTangle was a monitoring tool for finding and tracking what content was spreading across public Facebook, Instagram, and Reddit accounts, with dashboards, leaderboards, historical data, and an API. BSmeter has none of that. What BSmeter does is the verification step CrowdTangle deliberately left to humans: paste a video or podcast link and it transcribes the audio, extracts each verifiable claim, and scores it 0-100 against live web sources. If you're searching for a CrowdTangle alternative because you need trend monitoring, look at Meta Content Library or a third-party social listening tool. If you're here because you found something suspicious and want to know if it's true, that's what BSmeter is for.
Why did CrowdTangle shut down, and what replaced it?▾
Meta acquired CrowdTangle in 2016 and retired it on August 14, 2024, pointing users to the Meta Content Library as its successor. The transition drew significant criticism from researchers and civil-society groups: the Content Library restricts access to people at qualified academic or nonprofit institutions pursuing scientific or public-interest research, which excludes most journalists, and reporting at the time found it lacked a number of CrowdTangle features including automated insights, content benchmarking, search flexibility, and export options. BSmeter had no part in any of this and doesn't attempt to fill that gap.
Could I have used BSmeter and CrowdTangle together?▾
Yes, and that would have been the natural pairing. CrowdTangle told you a video was surging across public accounts; BSmeter tells you whether the claims inside that video are accurate. Discovery, then verification. Since CrowdTangle is gone, the modern version of that workflow is whatever monitoring tool you've moved to — Meta Content Library, Newswhip, Junkipedia, or plain platform search — feeding links into BSmeter for the claim-level check. BSmeter is free to start, so it costs nothing to slot into whatever you're using now.