Arbiter is an AI-powered social monitoring tool built by nonprofit research lab SimPPL to help journalists track emerging narratives and potential disinformation across multiple platforms.
The tool analyzes public posts from Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, Bluesky and 4chan. Journalists can ask questions and Arbiter finds key terms, groups similar posts, extracts claims and tracks narratives across platforms.
SimPPL began bringing newsrooms onto Arbiter earlier this year. Deutsche Welle, Argentine fact-checking outlet Chequeado and Philippine news site Rappler are among those using it, while people from more than 100 organizations have registered.
Nieman Lab reports the project is trying to fill part of the gap left by CrowdTangle, the Meta-owned monitoring tool that shut down in August 2024. CrowdTangle had become widely used by journalists and researchers tracking activity on Facebook and Instagram.
One of Arbiter’s early testers was Nest Center, a media NGO based in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Nest runs the Mongolian Fact-Checking Center, whose journalists have reported on coordinated disinformation campaigns involving neighboring Russia and China.
Nest co-founder Duuya Baatar tested Arbiter by asking about a Mongolian Supreme Court ruling that struck down a law banning the spread of “false information.” Arbiter surfaced posts from several small Facebook accounts suggesting lawmakers could replace it with provisions targeting libel and defamation.
Baatar initially dismissed the idea. Weeks later, parliament announced a working group focused on those issues. She told Nieman Lab the episode increased her confidence in the tool.
SimPPL co-founder Swapneel Mehta says Arbiter is designed to help journalists spot narratives before they become widespread.
“Social listening systems tell you where conversations are happening as they blow up,” he said. “The problem is, as journalists, you want to be ahead of the alert.”
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The challenge is that, to stay ahead of emerging narratives, Arbiter needs access to data it does not yet have.
Arbiter went through months of review for access to platform APIs and still faces rate limits. SimPPL also works with third-party data vendors, looks for ways to collect public information without violating platform rules and accepts data donated by academics. The organization is working with lawyers to review those methods and identify legal risks.
Cost is another hurdle. Arbiter is free during testing, but SimPPL is still working out how to fund it for cash-strapped newsrooms, including small outlets experimenting with AI.
Other parts of the media industry are also rethinking how they monitor online information. The BBC, for example, closed its social media investigations unit earlier this year.
Baatar does not see Arbiter as a complete CrowdTangle replacement. Meta’s Content Library is still better at finding specific posts, she said, while Arbiter helps identify broader patterns.
Mehta, meanwhile, wants Arbiter to keep operating through official platform APIs. Meta is separately licensing news content for some AI products, but that does not determine whether Arbiter will retain access.
“These are public conversations,” he said, “and collecting public conversations in the public interest should not be illegal.”
