Facebook's message to media industry is clear:
don't rely on us
Antoun Issa
Facebook has been moving away from news for years, and
users are turning elsewhere to consume news content
Tue 23 Feb
2021 16.30 GMT
Facebook
and Google could not have reacted more differently to Australia’s move to make
them pay for news content. They both started from combative positions, but as
the new media code drew closer to reality, Google lowered its fists, while
Facebook went straight for the head.
Facebook’s
dramatic use of its might to try coerce a government – it reversed its news ban
in Australia on Tuesday after obtaining a few last-minute concessions – only
reinforce growing concerns that the social media giant is too big, too powerful
and needs to be reined in. Given several countries have signalled pursuing
similar legislation, the global chain reaction of regulation Facebook sought to
fend off might actually have been accelerated courtesy of its abrupt behaviour
in Australia.
But the
reactions from Google and Facebook to Australia’s looming media code – Google
has reached deals with numerous Australian media companies, including Guardian
Australia – aren’t so surprising when one considers recent trends, and
Facebook’s past behaviour.
Facebook
has gone nuclear before – in 2018, when it decided overnight to change its
algorithm to deprioritise news content in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica
scandal. That sent referral traffic to media publishers plummeting, in Slate’s
case by 87%. It also forced the closure of then-millennial-favourite Mic (and
the loss of over 100 jobs).
“The first
changes you’ll see will be in News Feed, where you can expect to see more from
your friends, family and groups. As we roll this out, you’ll see less public
content like posts from businesses, brands, and media.”
A few
shifts have taken place since then on multiple fronts. Google replaced Facebook
as the main driver of traffic through Google Search for many media companies
and is now launching a series of products designed to help users reach news
content, including Google Discover, Google Web Stories and Google News
Showcase.
The latter
two products have already been launched in the United States but are still in
the process of rolling out globally, so Google’s decision to do deals with
Australian media companies to create content to live on these Google products
was completely in line with the tech giant’s priorities.
The second
major change that has taken place since 2018 is user behaviour. Major policy
shifts by digital platforms, either as a result of their own volition as with
Facebook, or imposed by government regulation, are almost guaranteed to provoke
a shift in user behaviour. Users – all of us – are not passive in this muddled
digital world, and user behaviour can also influence how platforms shift … see
Instagram’s launch of Reels in response to the TikTok phenomenon, or Stories in
response to Snapchat.
Australian
users, in line with global trends, had already developed new habits to consume
news after Facebook’s move in 2018. Although Facebook has maintained its top
spot as the main social media platform used for consuming news, that has
plateaued in several western countries, and in Australia’s case been declining,
according to the annual Digital News Report published by the University of
Canberra.
Sora Park,
professor of communication at the University of Canberra and one of the
report’s researchers, says that only 6% of those users turn to Facebook as a
sole source of news. The remaining 94% encounter news content on Facebook, but
also seek or encounter news elsewhere, either directly from news outlets or
other platforms.
“[The
decline is] not only because Facebook has changed its policy to be more friends
and family, and less of news and politics, it’s also because other platforms
have grown a lot in the last five years.”
YouTube and
Instagram, both originally launched as primarily entertainment platforms, have
in recent years seen growing consumption of news content. Australian news
consumption on YouTube has grown by 40% since 2016, making it second to
Facebook as a news source in the country. Instagram usage among Australians for
news content has grown by 200% in that same time (from 3% in 2016 to 9% in
2020).
And
publishers and tech giants have responded in kind. Many newsrooms are investing
more into these growing platforms, and tech giants are facilitating the shift
in user behaviour.
The key in
understanding user behaviour, Park says, is recognising that many users are not
actively seeking news on these platforms, but encountering news content
“incidentally”.
“There’s a
big difference between incidental and active news consumption … People actively
seek news on Google Search or Google News or Apple News. But social media
platforms like Facebook and Instagram, people mostly consume news incidentally.
“If you’re
not really interested in news and you’re not really engaged, [incidental]
consumption gives you some information about the world and increases your
interest, and then you might seek news.”
Facebook
and Google’s polar opposite reactions to regulation in Australia are advanced
warnings to media publishers across the world: do not rely on Facebook to
engage incidental, or passive, news consumers – something media companies
should have prepared for after 2018 – and shift to growing platforms such as
Google’s various products, including YouTube, as well as LinkedIn, TikTok, and,
ironically, Facebook-owned Instagram.
• Antoun
Issa is the off-platform editor at Guardian Australia
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