Sinar Project's public server to try out 4cat, a research tool to collect and analyse social media data, now available for limited usage. If interested, please email team@sinarproject.org to be added as a user on the server.
This tool would need to be used together with https://tools.digitalmethods.net/zeeschuimer, which is only available only as a Firefox browser plugin.
This version can support the collection of data from these sources:
- TikTok (posts)
- TikTok (comments)
- Instagram (posts & reels)
- 9GAG
- Imgur
- X/Twitter
- Douyin
- Gab
- Truth Social
- Threads
- RedNote/Xiaohongshu
- RedNote (comments)
What you will need:
- Firefox browser https://www.firefox.com/en-US/
- Social media account from one of the sources above (logged in where you can see the posts in the browser)
- Downloaded Firefox extension https://tools.digitalmethods.net/zeeschuimer (just click on the link and it will be downloaded to your computer)
- Login credentials to https://try4cat.sinarproject.org/
Steps
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Make sure that you have all the items above ready before you start. When you get the login token link, open the URL in your Firefox browser and reset your password. Then log in using the password you set.
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Then, in the same browser, navigate to the menu (3-line button at the top right, underneath the X button) and go to Extensions and Themes.
- Go to the Extensions menu (choose the Puzzle symbol from one of the options on the left).
In some cases (see image below), Firefox may have installed the extension automatically for you after download (choose Continue to Installation), so if you see the zeeschuimer extension here, you may skip to Step 9.
- From the Settings button choose "Install Add-on from File"
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On the window popped out, navigate to your Downloads folder and look for the file "zeeschuimer-1.13.6.xpi"
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A window will pop up on your Firefox browser like this. Click "Add"
- Check "Pin extension to toolbar" and click OK
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In browser header, add a new tab and open your social media website. Here we use TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/), which is possible to crawl data without any login.
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In another tab, click the new "Z" button in your browser toolbar. This will open the Zeeschuimer extension. If you do not see the "Z" button click on the Puzzle button on the toolbar and click on the extension.
- Turn on Active for TikTok (posts) and paste the 4CAT server URL under "Connect to 4CAT - 4CAT server URL:" https://try4cat.sinarproject.org/ (make sure you are still logged in on the Try4CAT website)
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Now that the extension is enabled, it will start crawling data. Go back to the tab with TikTok and start scrolling down. As you scroll the extension will collect data.
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After a few posts, notice that the "Items" in the Zeeschuimer tab had increased from 0, showing that there is data. Under Actions, click "to 4CAT" to upload the data to 4CAT.
- Go back to the 4CAT tab and navigate to "Datasets". You will now have a CSV dataset from TikTok!
- Once you are done, rememeber to disable the extension as it will continue to run whenever you have your social media website up
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1tFbL4aq7YG4ByzRSOjOBokbMYAXOcP_d?usp=drive_link