Studies show political risks following news blocking on Facebook, Reuters says

Canada has become ground zero for Facebook’s battle with governments that have enacted or are considering laws that force internet giants to pay media companies for links to news published on their platforms. Facebook has blocked news sharing in Canada rather than pay, saying news holds no economic value to its business, Reuters’ Byron Kaye writes. The blocking of news links has led to profound and disturbing changes in the way Canadian Facebook users engage with information about politics, two unpublished studies shared with Reuters found. “The news being talked about in political groups is being replaced by memes,” said Taylor Owen, founding director of McGill University’s Center for Media, Technology and Democracy, who worked on one of the studies. “The ambient presence of journalism and true information in our feeds, the signals of reliability that were there, that’s gone.” The lack of news on the platform and increased user engagement with opinion and non-verified content has the potential to undermine political discourse, particularly in election years, the studies’ researchers say.