Meta Content Library

Meta Content Library is a controlled-access tool that lets approved academic and non-profit researchers search the full public archive of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads posts, in near-real-time.

URL

https://transparency.meta.com/researchtools/meta-content-library/\

While this is a free tool, access is strictly limited to academic researchers and journalists working at not-for-profit organisations. Individuals can apply for access to these tools at the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan. If you intend to use it for research purposes, make sure to keep in mind the application time: The review process typically takes between 2-4 weeks, but can take up to 3-6 months for multi-agency data access requests or if additional reviews are needed.

(as of the most recent update from May 5th, 2025)

Description

The Meta Content Library is a research tool that provides vetted academic and non-profit researchers with access to public posts from Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. It enables near real-time and historical analysis of social media content, facilitating studies on political discourse, public health trends, misinformation, and other topics. (Replaces deprecated CrowdTangle for research at scale; the only Meta-sanctioned source that exposes view-count (“exposure”) data.)

The platform features:

  • User Interface (UI): A web-based dashboard for content search and filtering.

  • API Access: Programmatic access for large-scale queries (Python or R via ICPSR's secure Virtual Data Enclave).

  • Since Feb 2025, the Library includes all public Threads posts that meet the 1 k-follower rule; engagement metrics and OCR text-in-image search work for Threads too.

  • Advanced Filtering: Keyword searches, engagement metrics, date ranges, and language filters.

  • Engagement Insights: View counts, reactions, shares, and comments with hashed user IDs.

  • Historical Data: Access dating back to Facebook's launch (2004), with updates in near real-time.

  • CSV Downloads: Available for accounts meeting the "widely known" criteria (e.g., Facebook Pages with ≥15,000 followers, Instagram accounts with ≥25,000 followers, Threads public profiles ≥ 1 000 followers). CSV export is only for Facebook & Instagram posts that meet the “widely-known” criteria; Threads is UI-only for now.

  • Privacy Protection: Content is subject to deletion/privacy settings, ensuring ethical use.

Details on Features and Limits

Features and Functionality

Engagement Metrics Available

  • Post Engagement Details: For each post in the library, Meta provides engagement metrics. Researchers can see the number of reactions (including likes and other reactions), comments, and shares each post received​.

  • View Counts: Importantly, the Content Library also surfaces post view counts – the number of times people viewed the post. This “exposure” data helps researchers understand reach, not just interaction. (For example, Meta notes that “the Content Library does provide view counts,” giving insight into how many people potentially saw a piece of content​.)

  • Comments Data: In addition to posts, public comments on Facebook (and recently Instagram comments via the API) are accessible, allowing analysis of discussion threads in public forums​. All these metrics and content types are available both through the UI and via API output in the data.

Eligible Content and CSV Download Criteria

  • “Widely Known” Accounts: The Content Library focuses on posts from high-profile public sources. According to Meta’s documentation, it includes: Facebook Pages with 15,000 or more likes or followers, and public personal accounts that are either verified or have 25,000+ followers​. (This covers prominent individuals and organizations on Facebook, as well as Instagram/Threads accounts meeting that follower threshold or verification status.) In other words, only content from these widely-followed or verified accounts is available for search and CSV export – aligning with Meta’s definition of “widely-known figures and organizations” ​(assets.mofoprod.net).

  • Cross-Platform Inclusion: This criterion applies across Facebook and Instagram. For example, Instagram business and creator accounts that are public and have at least 25k followers (or a verification badge) are included in the library ​(socialmediaarchive.org). The same goes for Threads profiles (which are tied to Instagram accounts) meeting the 25k-follower mark. On Facebook, public profiles (personal accounts) with a blue check or 25k followers qualify, as do Pages with 15k fans​. This ensures that CSV downloads are limited to content from Pages and users with significant public followings.

  • CSV Exports: Researchers can download query results as CSV files through the Content Library interface for these eligible accounts. Meta officially enabled CSV exports of “certain publicly-accessible content posted by widely-known figures” in 2024 as part of the toolkit’s features​. This allows offline analysis of posts and their metrics. (For instance, a researcher could query all posts matching a keyword from high-follower accounts and export the data for analysis in a spreadsheet or statistical software.)

Query Limits and Data Usage Quotas

  • Weekly Query Budget: Meta imposes a rate limit on how much data can be retrieved to ensure manageable use. Official documentation specifies a maximum of 500,000 content items (posts, etc.) that each researcher can retrieve in a rolling seven-day period, counting both UI and API queries together​. In other words, the Content Library caps results at 500,000 per week per user. This limit is in line with Meta’s data access policies to prevent abuse while still allowing large-scale research queries.

  • CSV Download Limits: Crucially, any results downloaded as CSV count toward that weekly quota. Meta notes that “results in downloaded CSV files from Content Library will be counted towards your 500,000 total search results limit”​. There is no separate higher limit for CSV exports – the same 500k/week cap applies. If a researcher exports 100k rows today, it consumes part of the 500k allotment for the current 7-day window.

  • Other Limits: Aside from the 500k-per-week retrieval cap, all queries are subject to the platform’s standard rate limiting rules (e.g. requests per second via API, etc., as outlined in developer docs). The tool does not allow tracking beyond this limit, and it currently does not support historical post performance tracking over time beyond the data returned at query time (unlike some features CrowdTangle had). There is also an access restriction – the Content Library is only available to vetted academic and non-profit researchers, who must apply through the Meta Transparency Center/ICPSR process.

Cost

Level of difficulty

Moderate difficulty: The UI is user-friendly, but API access requires coding knowledge and data analysis skills.

Requirements

  • Researchers must be affiliated with an academic or non-profit institution.

  • Applications are vetted by the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR).

  • No IRB approval required, but applicants must submit a research agenda.

  • User interface access is available upon approval; API access requires a separate virtual data enclave (VDE) credential, which requires additional documentation (research proposal approved by your IRB). No raw-file download from the API; analysis must stay inside the VDE.

Limitations

  • Restricted Access: Only available to approved researchers (not the general public).

  • Data Privacy: Deleted/private posts become unavailable; raw data cannot be exported from the API.

  • Query Limits: API access has a weekly cap of 500,000 retrieved content items.

  • Replication Challenges: Due to content deletion or privacy changes, perfect replication of results can be difficult.

  • No Personal Identifiers: User data is hashed unless the account is a public entity.

  • Data-retention rule: Researchers must delete data older than 180 days that is no longer in the library.

Ethical Considerations

Guide

  • Official Documentation: Meta Transparency Center

  • ICPSR Social Media Archive: https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/

  • "Public Data Access Programs: A First Look" is a comprehensive evaluation by Hickey, Dowling, Navia, and Pershan (2024, Mozilla Foundation). The study assesses how major platforms, including Meta, provide researchers access to public data under the Digital Services Act, with a focus on usability, transparency, and technical limitations. It highlights the platform's dual-access approach via a user-friendly dashboard and API while also noting challenges such as data consistency and limited documentation that can affect replicability and broader research applications.

  • In this two-part webinar series, led by Professor Anja Neundorf under the DEMED project, researchers at the University of Glasgow and specialists from Meta discuss the Meta Content Library’s evolving capabilities. The first session (2023) focuses on core concepts such as keyword-based searches and privacy safeguards for analyzing public Facebook and Instagram data. The second session (2025) highlights newly added features, including comment-level data, text-in-image matching, and Threads integration, to support more advanced social media research.

Tool provider

Meta Platforms, Inc. Menlo Park, California, U.S

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Page maintainer

Martin Sona

Last updated

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