Social media traffic to top news sites craters

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. Website business models that depended on clicks from social media are now broken, as 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. Meanwhile, news companies are scrambling to find business solutions while simultaneously fighting to protect their work in the artificial intelligence (AI)-era. Efforts to reach voters with trusted information are becoming more difficult as tech platforms lean into viral trends, instead of quality news. However, disruption is often a catalyst for change, and publishers are better prepared now to defend their intellectual property in the AI-era having learned from their mistakes of being too heavily reliant on third parties for survival.