When Journalism is Turned Off: The Information Ecosystem in Local News Deserts in Canada

Executive Summary

This report presents preliminary findings from an ongoing research project on the effects of Meta's decision to end news availability on its platforms for Canadian users, examining how this "news ban" affected engagement with Canadian news outlets on Facebook and behaviour within politically-oriented Canadian Facebook Groups.

Even six months after the ban, a large number of Canadians (approximately 33%) still say they use Meta's flagship social media platforms Facebook or Instagram for access to Canadian political and current affairs information. The Facebook Pages of national news outlets lost approximately 64% of their Facebook engagement following the end of news availability for Canadian users, while local news outlets lost approximately 85%, and almost half of all local news outlets stopped posting on Facebook entirely in the four months following the ban. Engagement with politically relevant pages and groups has remained unchanged since the ban, suggesting politically-oriented users have not reduced their Facebook usage. Members of politically-oriented Facebook Groups have circumvented the ban by posting screenshots of Canadian news articles, and although there are fewer screenshots of news post-ban than there were links to news articles pre-ban, the total engagement with news content in these Groups has remained consistent.

Overall, the end of news availability on Facebook has resulted in a significant decrease in engagement for Canadian news outlets, but has not substantially changed the behavior of Canadian Facebook users.