News organizations need to quit social media until companies like X Corp. and Meta decide to value reliable information over profit and clicks.
It would be a complicated process, but doing so would be a necessary strong signal from important democratic institutions to reestablish public trust in media, create a sustainable business model, and rebalance social media platforms' power in the digital age.
According to a September survey by the International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE), 63 per cent of the experts from 63 countries think that the actual information environment, which is defined as the people, content and organizations that provide everyday news to millions of citizens, will worsen in the future.
The number rose from 54 per cent last year.
The survey also reported that social media platform owners are considered the greatest threat to the information environment, followed by local and foreign governments, politicians, and political parties.
The US Department of Justice charged last September two employees of RT, formerly known as Russia Today, a media outlet controlled and funded by the Russian government, who operated under covert identities in a Tennesse-based online content creation company to create and spread messages and videos to amplify domestic division among the US public.
In a press release, IPIE co-founder and president Phil Howard said that social networking site owners influence the quality and integrity of the information reaching the public.
“Be they billionaires entrepreneurs, governments or parent companies, the unchecked power of these entities poses a grave risk to the health of our global information environment,” he said.
Even if he’s not explicitly mentioned, it’s easy to think about Elon Musk, owner of X, which was formerly Twitter.
Since Musk acquired Twitter in October 2022, he has instantly transformed the social media platform into his private playground, constantly sharing fake news and pushing far-right conspiracy theories as recently as those regarding Haitian migrants in the US and the UK riots.
It is now clear that the free speech absolutism preached by Musk is entirely twisted and dangerous for democracy because it doesn’t put any control over violent, racist and misogynistic content.
How long will media organizations want to share their content on X, contributing to its growth and allowing it to be still perceived as a place of democratic exchange when, in reality, facts are undermined or buried?
One public figure who explicitly urged politicians and the public to quit X en masse has been Liverpool mayor Steve Rotheram after violent riots devasted the city area this summer.
If truthfulness and transparency are core values in media, it’s time for news outlets to face the elephant in the newsroom.
They should avoid associating their reputation with social networks like X, at least until new and fair moderation policies and content distribution are implemented.
Some would argue that lies and disinformation would run unchecked, further exacerbating the echo chamber.
Breaking news: it’s already the case.
Since Facebook launched two decades ago, experts have constantly proved that false information spreads faster than accurate information on social media due to various factors, from algorithms to clickbait headlines that trigger strong emotions.
Establishing a healthy and safe media environment goes beyond mere fact-checking. It involves, among other things, the trust between news outlets and readers.
Besides the moral dilemma, there’s also the economic damage that social media companies like Meta have inflicted on news organizations.
The Media Ecosystem Observatory (MEO) published a study in August that analyzes the impact of Meta’s ban on Canadian news, when the Canadian government enacted the Online News Act, or Bill C-18, into law in June last year.
The study found that after one year, Canadian news media have lost 85 per cent of their engagement on Facebook and Instagram, with a total engagement decline of 43 per cent.
The media landscape in Canada has so profoundly been altered that around 30 per cent of local news outlets previously active on social media are now completely inactive.
Only 22 per cent of Canadians know that their news is banned on Meta’s platforms, with an estimated reduction of 11 million views per day across Facebook and Instagram, resulting in more biased and less factual news consumption and, of course, reduced revenues.
Canadian publishers, especially the smaller and independent ones, felt increased financial strains as they struggled to navigate the new landscape.
Meta is behaving like a bully, perfectly aware of the crucial role that its platforms play in today’s news consumption and guided only by greed and corporate interests.
MEO director Aengus Bridgman said in a recent interview for Digital Content Next that having a third-party mediator between content and the public is highly risky.
“All this has hurt Canadian news viewership,” he said. “It has hurt Canadian news organizations. It has hurt journalism in that sense. It has hurt the ability to hold truth to power. None of that is good.”
It’s possible to give power back to news outlets and readers if both stop the dangerous mantra that there is no life beyond social networks.
News outlets have to build an audience driving traffic to their news websites where content moderation and more control are possible.
Free newsletters and subscription platforms like Substack allow for a more direct connection between media with the public to share ideas and reflect collectively.
Humber Et Cetera, Humber Polytechnic’s journalism newspaper, launched its first newsletter, Good Morning Humber, last month. It was met with a positive response and a steady traffic flow since its early inception, showing all the potential that newsletters have in creating a sense of belonging.
Reading the good old-fashioned newspapers wouldn't hurt either.
There’s life beyond social media for Canadian journalism and global news organizations. It’s time for them to pick a side: be complicit in exploiting information and readers or turn their back to social media and go their own way.
