Sara Fischer is the social media reporter for Axios, and she has a graph and everything (no Venn diagrams though) showing that fewer and fewer people are clicking through to top news sites as they browse X and Facebook.
Social media traffic to top news sites craters https://t.co/COV54ZmIz1
— Sara Fischer (@sarafischer) October 3, 2023
It's a nice chart and all, but maybe we're just dense. We don't get it. One reason is that Fischer never names these "top news sites." Which top news sites? The New York Times? CNN? She doesn't say. But there's reason for concern, as this leaves social media users more susceptible to misinformation ahead of the 2024 election. Again, which top news sites?
Fischer reports:
Traffic referrals to the top global news sites from Meta's Facebook and X, formerly Twitter, has collapsed over the past year, according to data from Similarweb.
Why it matters: Website business models that depended on clicks from social media are now broken.
What's happening: Regulatory pressure and free speech concerns have pushed tech giants to abandon efforts to elevate quality information, leaving the public more susceptible to misinformation ahead of the 2024 election.
Regulatory pressure and free speech concerns, huh? Having free speech on X means that people can say whatever they want, abandoning efforts "to elevate quality information." From those "top news sites," right?
They want to use "misinformation" so badly to shut down free speech on social media before the election. "Election integrity" used to be Facebook's No. 1 concern. And Elon Musk has cut his "election integrity" team in half.
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So what's the problem, other than people are looking elsewhere for their news?
Perhaps the reason is that no one trusts the media any longer.
— The Galaxy's Shortest Wookie (@Crapplefratz) October 3, 2023
Because most media is leftist slanted garbage.
— JWF (@JammieWF) October 3, 2023
Best thing I’ve seen all decade
— +thyrevolution.eth 🌱 (@thyrevolution) October 3, 2023
I’ve read it 3 times and I honestly have no idea what this headline means.
— Rabbit (@vinylrabbit) October 3, 2023
Tough time to be a buzzfeed type platform for sure.
— Donnie Loved to Surf (@ryanol) October 3, 2023
This is written like it's a bad thing.
— Cable Beard (@llcthecableguy) October 3, 2023
This chart and the accompanying article are meaningless.
— #CMFL (@seeemmeffell) October 3, 2023
— Quick Time Tweets (@DirkTheDaring3) October 3, 2023
Fake news. X is the greatest site for real time news.
— Dave🦝 (@bourbon_rox) October 3, 2023
As Musk just tweeted, mainstream news is just what they read on X yesterday.
Doesn't help that some news orgs like NPR and BBC got offended being called out as state funded media, then took their ball and ran home.
— longboringstory (@longboringstory) October 3, 2023
I've muted almost all media accounts here, including Axios and CNN for media malpractice. They've become more concerned with creating narratives that produce clicks and shares than reporting actual news.
— Helm Matthews 🇺🇸 🇺🇦 (@HelmMatthews) October 3, 2023
From your bio I can pretty much guess what you think is a top news site. Keep pedaling garbage and you’ll end up pouring shitty coffee for morons who pay 9 bucks for it.
— Richard Murray (@rightiousindgnt) October 3, 2023
Was Axios one of those top news sites?
People flock to social media because the mainstream media is so biased. Think of how many news stories you never would have heard of if they weren't posted on X. Let the people decide what's "misinformation."
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