Facebook Is Still the Most Important Social News Network

According to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2025, over half of under-35-year-olds in the United States now say that social media/video networks are their main source for accessing news, followed by TV and online news sites.

Among the 12 countries that the Reuters Institute has been tracking on this question since 2014, Facebook and YouTube are still the most important channels for news. Until 2022, Facebook had a reach of 30 percent of all surveyed respondents. This has dropped however to 26 percent, marking a 16 percentage point drop from its peak of 2016.

At the same time, the share of those who consume news via Instagram and Tiktok has risen over recent years, driven by younger demographics. While just one percent of respondents used TikTok for news in 2020, this figure has recently increased to ten percent.