Reports say news organizations are experiencing a significant drop in visitors and a hit to revenue as Facebook and Instagram's parent company Meta Inc. pivots away from the news business.
Despite its massive base of more than 3 billion users, Mark Zuckerberg's social media app accounted for just 33% of all social media traffic in page views on major news sites in December. do not have. CNBC reported.
That percentage was down from 50% in the same month last year, according to an analysis of 1,930 media sites provided to the network by traffic analysis firm Chartbeat.
Meta has refrained from reporting news in the face of a series of scandals, including mounting political scrutiny over its failure to share revenue with news organizations.
Meta also faces lawsuits over allegations that Facebook and Instagram became breeding grounds for election-related misinformation and political bias, and for failing to protect young users.
According to the report's findings, Facebook accounted for just 6% of external traffic referrals from social media platforms and search engines in December, down from 14% in the same month in 2018, five years ago.
One news outlet, the political news nonprofit Mother Jones, reported a whopping 99% increase in traffic from Facebook compared to its peak a few years ago.
The site once had 5 million visitors in 2017, but in December it had just 67,000 visitors.
“At this point, comments from executives at Facebook and Meta make it clear that they believe the news is more problematic than it is valuable and are minimizing public exposure,” Mother Jones CEO Monica said. “It seems like it's happening,” he said. Bauerlein told CNBC.
A Meta spokesperson told CNBC that the change is due to changes in user behavior.
“We know people don't come to Facebook for news or political content; they come to connect with others and discover new opportunities, passions and interests,” a spokesperson said. said the person. “We have made several changes to better align our investments with the products and services that people value most.”
The Post has reached out to Mehta for further comment.
As the Post reported, a recent analysis published by Columbia University suggests that Facebook should conservatively pay publishers at least $1.9 billion a year for their fair share of the ad revenue generated from search traffic. It has been found.
The same study found that Google would have to pay between $10 billion and $12 billion a year.
Meta has fiercely resisted efforts by national and international lawmakers to pass laws that would require it to share advertising revenue with news organizations in exchange for the use of their content.
Last year, Meta blocked Canadian users from accessing news content on Facebook and Instagram. This came after Canadian lawmakers passed a pay mandate. As a result of this decision, Canadian outlets are reportedly facing a significant drop in traffic and revenue.
Last fall, Meta also enacted plans to “decommission” Facebook's News tab for users in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.
The company said this was “part of our ongoing efforts to better align our investments with the products and services that people value most.”
The social media giant similarly pulled out of Australia in 2021, but later returned after reaching an agreement with MPs.
Also in the US, Meta threatened to completely strip news content from users in California after the state legislature introduced a bill that would require major online platforms to pay “journalism fees.” .
