The influence of Facebook over the success or failure of publishers and news sites has expanded astronomically over the past few years. Consider this: at the inauguration of President Trump, Fox News’ coverage attracted the most viewers on cable news – an average of 8.8 million. But their Facebook video of the same event attracted almost twice that number: 16 million. In 2017, the most-shared news video on the platform was viewed no fewer than 67 million times. Facebook now has the power to make or break publishers.
If the latest newsfeed change is anything to go by, they’re now keen on breaking them. The change is going to slow the spread of content from all media outlets across Facebook, in a move that The Hill has speculated may be due to the pressure the platform is under to stop the flow of “fake news.” Given that attempts to target individual publishers can lead to charges of political bias, something which in the past almost led to a Senate-led investigation of Facebook, the platform might be trying to get around the problem by diminishing the reach of all publishers equally.
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