Debunking claims about news content on Meta’s platforms
There has been a lot of reporting about Meta’s role in the news industry in recent days and how news content is shared on our platform. We thought it would be helpful to share some important facts about news content on our services and our concerns with the News Media Bargaining Code.
Fact 1: People are interested in new types of content and formats
The truth is that interest in news is declining on our platforms and that our audiences are engaging with different types of content. Since 2021, there have been significant changes in the types and categories of content that people are consuming across our family of apps. For example, Reels did not exist in 2021, and today, people reshare Reels 3.5 billion times every day across Facebook and Instagram. Primarily, we know our audiences come to Facebook to share the ups and downs of life, connect to local community groups, promote their business and or discover entertaining content. Links to news stories are a very small proportion of that — less than 3% percent of the content people see in their Facebook Feed.
Fact 2: News is not the reason people use Facebook and Instagram
As a content type on Facebook, news is highly substitutable. We have observed that when there is less or no news on our platforms, people continue to use our services. However, much of the recent public debate suggests that Facebook needs or unfairly benefits from news content, including financially. This isn’t the case. Meta is a commercial business and it is in our interest to continue to create products and services that help us grow and be successful. The reality is that accessing news is simply not the reason most people use our services. We’ve seen this recently in Canada where we ended news availability in August 2023. People still come to Facebook even without news on the platform. Just as the number of people around the world using our technologies continues to grow, the number of daily and monthly active users on Facebook in Canada has increased since ending news availability.
Fact 3: Meta provides value to news organisations through our free services
News organisations choose to share their content on Facebook and Instagram. By taking advantage of this free distribution news businesses can grow their audiences, sell more subscriptions and boost ad revenue. Publishers keep 100% of the revenue from traffic and subscriptions derived from outbound links on Facebook. For example, in 2023 we estimate that Facebook Feed sent Australian publishers more than 2.3 billion free clicks — for no charge — driving an estimated (AUD) $115 million worth of value. Ultimately, there is a misunderstanding of how news content works on Facebook. Some have accused Meta of “taking” or “stealing” news content but that’s not the case. We don’t scrape or pull content from publisher websites, unlike other companies. We provide a free service which publishers voluntarily choose to use and can benefit from.
Fact 4: Users’ feed experience is tailored to their preferences
There have been claims disputing that news content makes up just 3% of content shown in Feed and that Meta isn’t reflecting the reality of what users see in Feed. Given the volume of content shared online, Facebook’s Feed is created to allow people to have their own personal experience. For example, if you like engaging with fashion content, it’s likely you’ll see more content from Pages or Groups that have similar interests, like clothing or retail. Sometimes you’ll also see suggestions for other content like Reels, that might include fashion related content. For people who engage a lot with news content, they’re likely to see more news related content as that is their preference. Overall, news makes up a very small portion of the updates people see in Feed.
Fact 5: Meta is committed to keeping our platforms safe
There are claims that our decision to not renew commercials news deals means that news content will be replaced with misinformation or harmful content. As we outlined in our recent newsroom post, there is no change to publishers’ ability to use Facebook and Instagram. Ultimately, we’re focused on building the best experiences for our users and ensuring the strength of our core business. This includes our ongoing commitment to keep misinformation and harmful content off our services, through our global fact-checking program — which includes 90 organisations fact checking in 60 languages — and our own Community Standard rules.
Fact 6: Global tech companies cannot solve the long standing issues facing the news industry
It’s been well-documented that the traditional news industry and sustainability of public interest journalism has faced challenges over the past two decades. New technology has emerged, consumer behaviour has changed, and the digitisation of advertising and changes to classifieds ads has seen old traditional business models impacted. But forcing technology companies into commercial relationships will not solve the long-term challenges facing public interest journalism or encourage the news industry to develop sustainable business models. We’ve been consistent in sharing that we don’t believe the News Media Bargaining Code framework fixes the long standing issues facing the news industry. We outlined these concerns in the 2022 review of the code.
We will continue to engage with the government on this topic, and hope that the data and evidence we provide serves as useful reference points in this ongoing conversation.
