Canada's online information ecosystem has fundamentally changed and so has Canadians’ definition of news
A new report from the Media Ecosystem Observatory (MEO) draws on nearly 9 million social media posts and a national survey of 1,518 Canadians to document how journalism is losing ground online, and what is filling the void.
June 30, 2026 - The information Canadians encounter online has changed dramatically in just three years. As journalism has lost visibility across major social media platforms, political influencers and other non-journalistic sources have become a larger part of Canadians' information diets. In The News Canadians Actually See: Redefining Political Information in the Digital Age, the MEO finds that the content increasingly filling this space is systematically different from the journalism it is replacing, and that most Canadians still don't realize news organizations can no longer publish on Facebook and Instagram because of the Meta news ban.
This new ecosystem brief tracks these shifts with hard data: 8,961,693 posts from 856 Canadian news organizations across Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, TikTok, and Bluesky from January 2023 to December 2025, combined with a nationally representative survey examining how Canadians define, encounter, and engage with news today. The picture that emerges is a growing disconnect between the journalism losing ground online and the content increasingly accepted as news, particularly among younger Canadians.
Each platform now provides Canadians with only a fraction of the journalistic content available in the country, if any at all. Reaching Canadians through multiple platforms creates a monumental challenge for small, local newsrooms that struggle to keep pace, particularly as audiences shift to video. The result is a more fragmented information environment, with less common ground for everyone and less visibility into what's happening at home.
Mathieu Lavigne, Analytical Lead, Media Ecosystem Observatory
Key findings
Younger Canadians define “news” more broadly. 18–34-year-olds are far more likely than those 55+ to rate influencer and citizen journalism content as “news”. Frequent exposure to a content type is associated with defining it as news, except for AI-generated content, which most Canadians dismiss regardless of exposure.
The supply of news on social media has fallen since 2023. Beyond the Meta news ban, posts from news organizations on X dropped 55%. TikTok, YouTube, and Bluesky only partly fill the gap. News supply has become fragmented, with different outlets active on different platforms and lower access to local journalism.
Awareness of the Meta news ban remains low. Only 41% of Facebook users and 26% of Instagram users know that news outlets cannot publish on Meta’s platforms. Most who are aware have adapted (45% visit news websites directly, 36% use a news app), but about a quarter have not changed behaviour or have disengaged from news.
Canadians’ feeds do not match their preferences for political and current affairs content. AI-generated content and posts from unknown users are encountered nearly as often as traditional media— yet 74% of Canadians want to see less AI-generated content, and 60% want to see fewer posts from unknown users. In fact, of all content types tested, traditional media and posts from friends and family are the only ones Canadians want more of.
Canadians turn to news organizations on video platforms during major events. Across 135 major events (2023–2025), news organizations captured the majority of engagement on TikTok (88%) and YouTube (68%). On X, influencers captured 89% of engagement despite publishing fewer posts than news organizations.
News organizations and political influencers produce systematically different content. Coding of ~160,000 YouTube and TikTok video transcripts from 2025 shows news accounts focus on reporting (80%), while influencer content mixes reporting, opinion, and analysis. Influencers more often present claims without attribution (76% vs. 31%) and score higher on emotional intensity.
The report argues that these shifts have important implications for democratic life. As younger Canadians increasingly encounter political information through influencers and short-form video, and increasingly recognize that content as news, the informational foundation of civic life is changing, even if many users may not perceive the shift.
Media Contact:
Isabelle Corriveau
Associate Director, Public Engagement
media@mediatechdemocracy.com
