Users Are Relying Less on Facebook for News in Favor of WhatsApp, Study Finds

Just a year ago, nearly 70 percent of American adults were getting their news from Facebook, according to the Pew Research Center. Now, a new survey finds that this number has dropped, with the changes being most prominent among younger users. Instead of Facebook, it would seem that people are becoming more comfortable using WhatsApp to share news articles.

The new study was done by the Reuters Institute at Oxford University, which found that consumption of news via Facebook has dropped by 9 percent in the U.S. between 2017 and 2018. The decline is more sharply felt among younger users, with the numbers falling by 20 percent within the same period. Globally, the drop was at a marginally smaller 6 percent and this was from 2016 to the present.

“Almost all of the decline is due to a decrease in the discovery, posting, and sharing of news in Facebook. At the same time, there has been a rise in the use of messaging apps for news as consumers look for more private (and less confrontational) spaces to communicate,” the report reads.

Now, it’s worth noting that Facebook still commands a sizeable chunk of online influence when it comes to news delivery and consumption. However, due to the continued proliferation of fake news and the increasing toxicity of the platform, users are looking for reprieve. This is where WhatsApp comes in.

An increasing number of users around the globe are now choosing to share news via the private messaging service because of its less public nature. It reduces the chances of sparking an unintended confrontation from users who might not have been the intended target of the post. As such, it poses less risk of conflict.

On that note, WhatsApp is a messaging app that is owned by Facebook, CNBC points out. So any increase in usage or traffic to the platform will still benefit the social network.