Bored of Facebook news? You’re not alone, says a new study

Many people are switching from Facebook to closed forums like WhatsApp to discuss daily news because of worries about privacy, fake stories and toxic debates, a survey said yesterday. The latest Digital News Report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found that news consumption via Facebook is falling, particularly among the young, who prefer WhatsApp, Instagram and Snapchat. “People are ... getting a little bit bored with Facebook,” Nic Newman, lead author of the seventh annual report told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Facebook remains the most popular social network for news, with 36 per cent using it in the last week. But it has lost ground to other apps, especially WhatsApp, which has tripled in popularity as a source of news in four years to 15pc. Respondents said they often find stories on Facebook and Twitter and post them to a WhatsApp group for discussion with a smaller set of friends. Although much of Facebook’s fall is attributable to its changed algorithms, which prioritise interactions with family and friends, trust is also a major concern. Only 23pc of 74,000 people polled in 37 countries said they trust news on social media, compared to 44pc trust in news overall.