Meta’s ten-year war of attrition against journalism
Mark Zuckerberg’s recent statements, in which he openly brands journalism and fact-checkers as “biased,” are just the culmination of a long war of attrition against journalism on Facebook. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has looked back at a decade of actions by Meta undermining professional journalism and access to reliable information, and in ten key points, the organization highlights how the social media giant has gradually built a technical, economic and political architecture hostile to quality journalism.
From the 2015 algorithm changes to Facebook’s ban on media in Canada, this timeline identifies a coherent strategy aimed at marginalising professional information on Meta’s platforms, one with an accelerating trajectory in recent years that directly threatens the public’s fundamental right to access reliable information online.
“One step forward, two steps back. For every pledge of adherence to democratic principles given by Meta during the past ten years, there has been a decision to prepare for the systematic eviction of journalism from its platforms. This policy is no longer just a threat to the media, it endangers the public’s right to reliable information and threatens the balance required for democratic stability.
Ten years combatting journalism on Meta’s platforms
2015: Fewer pages, fewer media
The Facebook group modifies its algorithm for the first time in order to promote content produced by the “friends” of the social media’s users on their personal accounts rather than content published on Pages, which is intended mainly for organisations and companies, including the media.
2016: Disinformation reaches new heights during US election
The group continues to move in the same direction in June 2016 when, just a few months before the US presidential election, it strengthens its policy of promoting content posted by the "friends and family" of users. This is achieved by giving priority to comments at the expense of content produced by media companies, which use Pages as their dissemination method. After these changes, disinformation explodes on Facebook. According to a BuzzFeed News survey published in November 2016, false information related to the US election outperforms information produced by journalistic media. After being subjected to much criticism, the Facebook group launches its fact-checking programme in December 2016 and repeatedly posts about the benefits of this approach.
2018: Creating a content hierarchy
Mark Zuckerberg announces a major change on Facebook: the visibility of content produced by businesses, brands and media is reduced on the pretext that the platform’s users are complaining that it is crowding out content produced by friends and family.
2021: Media banned in Australia
In 2021, the Facebook group crudely blackmails the Australian government, which is about to pass a law on redistributing advertising revenue from platforms to media outlets. If the law is passed, Facebook says it will ban media outlets from its platform and prevent the sharing of media links. On 17 February, the group carries out its threat. Less than a week later, the Australian government gives in and Facebook lifts its restrictions. Facebook is exempted from any redistribution to media outlets if it provides evidence that it has negotiated a sufficient number of direct agreements with media publishers.
2021: Political, societal and election-related content no longer welcome
In February 2021, the group starts granting less visibility to political, societal and election-related content, as previously announced in 2018. This marks the beginning of a long series of updates reinforcing this move and contributing to the decline in the visibility of general interest media content. According to a study by the companies Chartbeat and Similarweb published in 2024, the decline in media visibility has resulted in a fall in traffic to media sites of more than 50% since 2018.
2023: Meta bans media in Canada, threatens the same in California, and eliminates Facebook News in Europe
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Bans media in Canada
As the Canadian government prepares to pass Bill C-18, which would force social media companies to compensate media for the value they bring to their platforms, Meta – as the group is now called – threatens to ban media from Facebook and Instagram if the law is ever enacted. The group carries out its threat in 2023 and maintains its censorship despite widespread criticism of the inability to find media information on the platform about the wildfires devastating the country in the summer of 2023. This ban has still not been lifted
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Threatens California
In June 2023, Meta again resorts to its favourite strategy of threatening media outlets with bans. This time, the group directly targets the state of California, where Meta is headquartered. Once again, Meta opposes the redistribution of revenue to the media.
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Eliminates Facebook News in Europe
Meta announces that it will eliminate Facebook News, the tab dedicated to news on its mobile app, in early December 2023 in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. Offering content selected from around 100 partner media, this space has represented an attempt to promote general interest news and information on the platform. Meta announces that it will also be eliminated in the United States and Australia in April 2024.
By ending this programme, which promised to promote journalistic content by means of a dedicated tab, the company demonstrates a clear disregard for reliable journalism.
2024: Eliminates CrowdTangle
Facebook’s public monitoring tool, CrowdTangle, was one of the few ways to access information about the visibility of media content and disinformation on the platform. Meta shuts down access to this tool and deprives researchers and journalists of a crucial means of assessing disinformation on the platform and investigating Facebook’s uses. The tool is replaced by Content Library, portrayed by the group as a similar tool. But social media researchers dispute this.
2025 : Mark Zuckerberg “Muskifies” his platforms
In a five-minute video posted on Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg announces that, under the guise of defending “freedom of expression,” he is ending his partnership with fact-checkers in the United States, and he accuses the media of pressing for more and more censorship. The fact-checkers are to be replaced by a system based on “Community Notes” on Elon Musk’s platform X, which leave it to users to verify the reliability of information. Zuckerberg also announces that he will revisit the strategy of moderating political content while relaxing the conditions of use as regards sensitive subjects such as immigration and gender. In other words, Zuckerberg is “Muskifying” his social media platforms and reinforcing information chaos.
