Facebook change to newsfeed restricting journalism: Reporters without Borders

The social media giant clarified its new policy is 'just a test'

Reporters without Borders [RSF] has called on Facebook to “act responsibly by abandoning the change to its news feed that it is currently testing in six countries,” namely Slovakia, Serbia, Bolivia, Guatemala, Sri Lanka and Cambodia.

In a statement, the organisation has warned that the new policy implemented since mid-October “would be disastrous for the survival of many media outlets if Facebook adopted the change worldwide.”

Explaining the change, RSF says that the “news media stories no longer appear in the main “News feed” unless they pay to appear there.”

Under the policy, the content shown in news feed comes from users’ friends or paid/ advertisements while content pertaining to news media is relegated to ‘explore’ – a less prominent feed.



RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire has said: “In our view, this arrangement reinforces a discriminatory, pay-based distribution of media content that threatens journalism’s ability to survive.”

“Given social media’s role in providing access to the news media, it would be dangerous for journalism to be relegated to Facebook’s cellars.”

“We call on Facebook to behave more responsibly,” said Elodie Vialle, the head of RSF’s Journalism and Technology Desk. “We are extremely worried about the way this test is being conducted, the lack of transparency and the potential consequences for the media. Facebook’s goal is clear.

It wants to keep its users on its site for as long as possible. But this must not threaten journalistic freedom and independence by undermining their practitioners.”

Responding to the criticism, Facebook clarified in a statement that the policy is just a test.

“There have been a number of reports about a test we’re running in Sri Lanka, Bolivia, Slovakia, Serbia, Guatemala, and Cambodia. Some have interpreted this test as a future product we plan to deliver globally. We currently have no plans to roll this test out further.”



“The goal of this test is to understand if people prefer to have separate places for personal and public content. We will hear what people say about the experience to understand if it’s an idea worth pursuing any further. There is no current plan to roll this out beyond these test countries or to charge pages on Facebook to pay for all their distribution in News Feed or Explore,” the statement adds.