A new research study published by the Media Ecosystem Observatory highlights how Meta’s decision to ban news from being posted to Facebook and Instagram for Canadian users has impacted online engagement one year later.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, decided to begin blocking news links on the two websites in response to the Liberal government’s Online News Act, Bill C-18.
The study said that Canadian news outlets have lost 85% of their engagement on Facebook and Instagram in the year following Meta’s news ban, a loss compensated slightly by increased engagement on other platforms like TikTok. However, the increase on other platforms has not made up for the loss, resulting in an overall decrease of 42.6% in online engagement.
“This represents approximately 11 million fewer views per day (5 million for Facebook and 6 million per Instagram),” wrote researchers.
The ban has also decimated local news.
According to the research, approximately 30% of local news outlets in Canada that were previously active on social media are now inactive.
As of June 2023, right before the ban, 770 news outlets were active on the five biggest social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and X.
By June 2024, only 555 were still posting on any platform.
“30% of the 713 Canadian local news outlets who were previously active on social media are no longer able to share their content and build their readership online,” reads the study.
Local news wasn’t the only thing negatively affected by Bill C-18, as the CEO of a digital content company previously said that the bill was a disaster for small companies.
“When I talk to my peers, whose companies are a lot smaller, I hear they are at the brink of closing their doors,” said Brandon Gonez, CEO of Gonez Media Inc. “Meaning we are going to be left with an ecosystem of companies that are living only because of government funding.”
Even though 86% of Canadians report using Facebook and Instagram monthly, 70% of whom use Facebook and 65% of whom use Instagram to read, watch, listen to, or share the news, only 22% of Canadians are aware of the news ban.
“Given this lack of awareness, it is not surprising that Canadians have not changed their behaviour to substitute for the loss of news content on Facebook and Instagram,” reads the study.
Canadians are still seeking news content on Meta platforms, which could be because 36% of Meta users report seeing Canadian news content from news organizations on the platforms in the past six months.
The research highlighted various ways to circumvent the ban, such as sharing screenshots of news content.
Before the implementation of Meta’s news ban, there were almost no posts of screengrabs of news. However, immediately after the ban, the vast majority of posts of news on the platforms were via screengrabs.
“News content is thus still circulating among Canadian users on Facebook and Instagram, although it is dramatically less present than the volume of news available before the ban,” reads the study. “Although most Canadians are not aware of the ban, over half of Canadians still use Facebook or Instagram for news and are severely impacted by the reduced visibility of news content online.”
The study said that motivated Canadians can still seek news outside of social media through news subscriptions, digital news websites, or television and radio; however, these active news seekers are the minority, said the study.
While Meta did not budge in response to the Liberals’ bill, Google struck a deal with them to pay $100 million to Canadian news publishers annually to comply with the legislation.
“The average Canadian does not frequently consume news, particularly about politics (in fact, 40% actively avoid it) and will likely only become aware of current events by being incidentally exposed to content about it online,” reads the study. “A healthy news industry is a critical part of any democracy: people need access to accurate, diverse, trustworthy information that is presented without political bias. Due to the ban, the Canadian information ecosystem is less able to facilitate that access, and many Canadians are simply unaware.”