Meta Content Library and API changelog

The changelog lists product and documentation changes per release, in reverse chronological order, for both Meta Content Library user interface (UI) and API. Prior to June 20th, 2025, the changelog recorded updates for Meta Content Library API only.

Dec 10, 2025

As of this date, Meta Content Library version 4.0 is deprecated and will no longer be supported. See Get Help for instructions on opening a support ticket if you have questions or concerns.

November 10, 2025

July 31, 2025

As of this date, Meta Content Library version 3.0 is deprecated and will no longer be supported. See Get Help for instructions on opening a support ticket if you have questions or concerns.

July 15, 2025

Synchronous search result limit

The maximum allowed value of the limit parameter for synchronous search was reduced from 500 to 100.

June 30, 2025

June 20, 2025

March 14, 2025

Facebook Marketplace data

• You can now perform queries on Facebook Marketplace listings in Meta Content Library API.
• For parameter descriptions and sample queries, see Guide to Facebook Marketplace data.
• For descriptions of the API fields returned in Meta Content Library API search responses, see Data dictionary.

Search text in images enhancements

• You can search for text in images posted on Facebook or Instagram within approximately the last 180 days, extended from the previous 90 days.
• Text in image search for photos shared as story highlights is now available for Facebook as well as Instagram.

February 27, 2025

Amazon WorkSpaces Secure Browser now mandatory

Our beta phase for Amazon WorkSpaces Secure Browser is now concluded and VPN access to Secure Research Environment is no longer supported.

Two Secure Browser portals (in different locations) continue to be available for each environment. See your research tool or dataset documentation for the specific URLs to use. See WorkSpaces Secure Browser for information about getting started with and working within Secure Browser.

February 11, 2025

Amazon WorkSpaces Secure Browser

The beta phase for Amazon WorkSpaces Secure Browser has been extended to February 27, 2025. After that date, access to Meta Content Library API in Secure Research Environment will require WorkSpaces Secure Browser, and OpenVPN will no longer be supported. You will not lose any data in this transition.

Two WorkSpaces Secure Browser portals (in different locations) are now available for each environment. See Getting started for more information, including the URLs to use.

February 6, 2025

• The Search quality approach document has been updated to reflect the latest search quality values collected during a December 1-5, 2024 test period. The testing included the following new additions:

  • Facebook profiles endpoint
  • Downloadable data

• Bulk comments retrieval has been added to the API. This method of retrieving comments allows you to retrieve Facebook or Instagram comments on multiple post or comment IDs using a single asynchronous query. See Guide to bulk comments data for information on using the async_search/facebook_comments or async_search/instagram_comments path with the parent_ids parameter.

December 11, 2024

As of this date, Meta Content Library versions 1.0 and 2.0 are deprecated and will no longer be supported. See Get Help for instructions on opening a support ticket if you have questions or concerns.

Version 5.0, November 11, 2024

Meta Content Library API v5.0 has been enhanced with the following new features and updates:

• With this release, we are able to make more public Facebook profile and Instagram personal account information accessible by lowering the threshold number of followers for widely-known individuals and organizations from 25,000 to 1,000. Specifically:

  • Facebook view-only public data (not downloadable) now includes posts on public profiles with a verified badge or 1,000 or more followers

  • Instagram view-only public data (not downloadable) now includes posts from personal accounts set to public with 1,000 or more followers

• Searches for text in Facebook or Instagram posts can now include text in images. Search responses indicate whether each post matched based on text that appeared in a text-only post or text that appeared in an image. See Guide to Facebook posts data and Guide to Instagram posts data for information about the new SEARCH_SCOPE parameter that supports this feature.

• You can now perform a search in Meta Content Library and capture the query with its search parameters so you can perform the same search in Content Library API. You do this by requesting an API search ID in Content Library and then passing that ID in Content Library API. The API search ID functions as an alias of the search with all its parameters. You can also share API search IDs with other researchers who have the same account type (Secure Research Environment or ICPSR) that you have. See Share API search ID for more information.

• Facebook and Instagram story highlights are now included in Facebook and Instagram posts available data. In support of this feature, there are some changes to the parameters when searching for Facebook or Instagram posts. For details, see Guide to Facebook Posts and Guide to Instagram Posts.

  • The MEDIA_TYPES parameter in the get() method with the search/facebook_posts and search/instagram_posts paths is deprecated as of version 5.0

  • The CONTENT_TYPES parameter in the get() method with the search/facebook_posts and search/instagram_posts paths is new as of version 5.0 and can be used as a replacement for MEDIA_TYPES

• Information about gaming videos on Facebook is now included in available posts data. See the Data dictionary for information about the new activities field in Facebook posts.

• The geographic scope of public data from public Facebook Pages, groups, events and profiles, and from public Instagram accounts has been updated. Public data is excluded from China, North Korea, South Korea and Togo.

• You can now specify a sort order in searches for producers including Facebook Pages, groups, events and profiles, and Instagram accounts. There are two options: most_to_least_xxx (xxx depends on the producer), and newest_to_oldest. The default is most_to_least_xxx. See the Guides related to these endpoints for more information on the new sort parameter that supports this feature.

  Note: There may be reduced data quality when using the most_to_least_follower_count sort option for Pages.

  Searches conducted in API versions earlier than 5.0 had responses sorted in newest-to-oldest order by default. To achieve that same order, you must now specify newest_to_oldest with the sort parameter in your query.

• The default sort order in searches for Facebook and Instagram posts has been changed beginning with this release. The sort parameter offers three options: newest_to_oldest, oldest_to_newest, and most_to_least_views. As of Release 5.0, the default is most_to_least_views. See the Guides related to Facebook and Instagram post data for more information on the sort parameter.

  Note: Searches conducted in API versions earlier than 5.0 had responses sorted in newest-to-oldest order by default. To achieve that same order, you must now specify newest_to_oldest with the sort parameter in your query.

• Post views count latency has been reduced. See the Data dictionary for updated definitions of views.

• The citation format was updated with a new Digital Object Identifier (DOI) that specifies version 5.0. Older release DOIs are still available for reference. See Citations.

Version 4.0, July 25, 2024

Meta Content Library API v4.0 has been enhanced with the following new features:

• You can sort Facebook comments and fetch all comments (not just top-level replies). See Guide to Facebook comments data.

• Posts on Facebook surfaces can be distinguished between posts made by the surface owner themselves (i.e. a page posting to its own surface) and posts made to the surface by a different producer. See Guide to Facebook posts data. Additionally:

  • group_ids, event_ids, profile_ids and page_ids parameters are deprecated in favor of a unified surface_ids parameter which accepts any combination of previous parameters (An error is shown if you attempt to use a deprecated parameter.)

  • admin_countries and owner_types are replaced with surface_countries and surface_types

• You can share producer lists from the Meta Content Library UI and use them in the API.

• You can see the producer username if it is available (including posts and comments owner information). See Data dictionary.

• You can see public content made from Hong Kong and Australia. See Geographic scope for more information.

• You can sort Facebook and Instagram posts. See Guide to Facebook posts data and Guide to Instagram posts data.

• Facebook posts data includes the is_branded_content flag in addition to branded_content_page_id. See Data dictionary.

• The citation format was updated with a new Digital Object Identifier (DOI) that specifies version 4.0. Older release DOIs are still available for reference. See Citations.

Version 3.0, April 18, 2024

Meta Content Library API v3.0 has been enhanced with the following new features. Note that as of August 15, 2024, Instagram comments are included in version 3.0.

• You can perform Facebook profile searches by calling the Meta Content Library API client search_facebook_profiles() method. See Guide to Facebook profiles data.

• You can fetch comments of a Facebook post or replies to a specific Facebook comment by leveraging Meta Content Library API entity client, using the edge(“comments”) method. See Guide to Facebook comments data.

• You can fetch comments on an Instagram post or replies to a specific Instagram comment by leveraging Meta Content Library API client, by using the /comments endpoint. See Guide to Instagram comments data.

• ID-based retrieval: This new feature allows you to fetch a Meta Content Library node by using its Meta Content Library ID. We also support retrieval of edges to a node. See the ID-based retrieval documentation.

• You can fetch more results from Instagram personal accounts as the threshold is reduced to 25,000 followers. See Guide to Instagram accounts data and Guide to Instagram posts data.

• You can filter Facebook posts by their media type. Set the new media_types parameter to one or more available media types (like photos, videos etc). See Guide to Facebook posts data.

• Instagram post data includes the name of the post owner. See Data dictionary.

• You can see mentions of eligible Facebook pages, profiles and Instagram accounts which are available in Meta Content Library API.

• The citation format was updated with a new Digital Object Identifier (DOI) that specifies version 3.0. Older release DOIs are still available for reference. See Citations

Version 2.0, January 30, 2024

(Version 2.0 deprecated as of 12/11/24)

Meta Content Library API v2.0 has been enhanced with the following new features:

• You can search Facebook and Instagram posts by post ID. Use the post_ids parameter, specifying one or more post IDs that you obtained from a previous search. See Guide to Facebook posts data and Guide to Instagram posts data.

• A subset of Instagram personal accounts that match qualification criteria can be included in results when you search for Instagram account information or for posts from Instagram accounts. Public Instagram accounts include professional accounts for businesses and creators. They also include a subset of personal accounts that have account privacy set to public and have either a verified badge or 50,000 or more followers. A verified badge in this context refers to accounts confirmed as authentic and not those with a paid Meta Verified subscription. See Guide to Instagram accounts data and Guide to Instagram posts data.

• You can filter posts from Facebook Pages by the page admin’s location country. Set the new admin_countries parameter to include one or more country codes of your choice. See Guide to Facebook posts data.

• Multimedia (photos and videos) can be included in search post results for both Instagram and Facebook. This feature is only available if you are accessing the API in an approved third party cleanroom environment, and only if that environment supports retrieval of multimedia. The feature is not available in Secure Research Environment. See Guide to Facebook posts data and Guide to Instagram posts data.

• The citation format was updated with a new Digital Object Identifier (DOI) that specifies version 2.0. Older release DOIs are still available for reference. See Citations.

Version 1.0 update, December 15, 2023

(Version 1.0 deprecated as of 12/11/24)

The following changes were implemented:

• Search quality metrics were updated/improved. See Search quality approach.

• Due to the improved search quality, the "beta" designation on version 1.0 was removed.

• The citation format was updated with a new Digital Object Identifier (DOI) that does not include a beta designation. See Citations.