Right-wing media's traffic nosedive: what happened?

[frauenfelder]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/07/02/right-wing-medias-traffic-nosedive-what-happened.html

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[sqlrob]

@frauenfelder

Breitbart, Daily Wire, The Blaze, National Review, Daily Caller, and the Federalist have seen traffic drop by as much as 95%

[gracchus]

these right-wing sites were cut off at the knees when Facebook tweaked its feed algorithm to favor posts from friends and family and and disfavor political posts.

The supply of racist Boomer uncles only gets them so far, and no-one wants to be friends with an incel.

[fredtal]

Not all us boomers are raciest assholes. Some of us are radial leftist assholes.

[TornPaperNapkin]

Now that the US has fallen there is no further need to funnel victims to them and inflate their traffic with bots?

[generic_name]

To make myself feel better about the political reality of our world I’m going to hope that a lot of people who used to regularly visit Breitbart et al just got burned out on how septic those places are.

Or maybe some of them had a Winston Smith moment where they realized constant angry headlines about “the Biden Crime Family” were propaganda while Trump was now a felon.

[Shuck]

@frauenfelder

these right-wing sites were cut off at the knees when Facebook tweaked its feed algorithm

I sometimes wonder how much the whole “MAGA” movement was a creation of Facebook. Quite a lot, apparently. (Because this is the decline in traffic to sites people were regularly going to for years, just because Facebook stopped pushing those sites. Imagine if Facebook never introduced users to those sites in the first place.) Facebook (et al) has been pushing the culture (hard-) rightward for years - it’s not like they have a similar effect on radicalizing people into left-wing politics.

@frauenfelder

But fear not, as soon as Emperor Trump resumes his throne, he’ll put a swift end to this censorship.

It really does show how a single entity with control over the algorithms can heavily influence the society as a whole…

[TornPaperNapkin]

@Shuck

I sometimes wonder how much the whole “MAGA” movement was a creation of Facebook.

FB caused a civil war in Asia. Honestly there is no reason except for racism to have ever thought it wouldn’t/couldn’t do so here.

[gracchus]

If, as is highly possible, the U.S. goes fascist, then Facebook and Xitter will be seen as our equivalent of Rwanda’s Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines.

@fredtal

Not all us boomers are raciest assholes. Some of us are radial leftist assholes.

I’d argue that anyone your age who maintained a leftist outlook past 1980 falls outside the Boomer mindset.

[mmascari]

@frauenfelder

Federalist have seen traffic drop by as much as 95% since their glory days of the 2020 election cycle.

Maybe people just don’t like them anymore?

@frauenfelder

Meanwhile, The New York Times saw a 10% increase during the same period.

Clearly some still like Right-wing media. Perhaps the Times is just doing it better.

[micah]

Maybe Ben Shapiro just needs to buy himself a Wordle?

Thanks To Hits Like Wordle, The New York Times Is Now A Gaming Company

[Brainspore]

@Shuck

I sometimes wonder how much the whole “MAGA” movement was a creation of Facebook.

Trump loved to complain about the imaginary anti-conservative bias on Twitter, but that stupid platform was probably the single biggest enabler of his rise to power with Facebook as a close second.

[RickMycroft]

@frauenfelder

cut off at the knees when Facebook tweaked its feed algorithm to favor posts from friends and family and and disfavor political posts.

The algorithm giveth, and the algorithm taketh away.

Facebook Knifes Its Own Analytics Tool to Hide Its Ben Shapiro Problem

[gracchus]

@micah

Maybe Ben Shapiro just needs to buy himself a Wordle?

Turdle. It’s a natural.

[KowboyBob]

@frauenfelder

far-right news and commentary websites like Breitbart, Daily Wire, The Blaze, National Review, Daily Caller, and the Federalist have seen traffic drop by as much as 95% since their glory days of the 2020 election cycle

[matteblack]

And Rupert Murdoch is our Félicien Kabuga. A greedy, sociopathic, swaggering mediocrity masquerading as a news publisher for whom there is no human frailty and/or misery so sad and deplorable that he will not exploit it for his own gain.

[Stripes]

@Shuck

wonder how much the whole “MAGA” movement was a creation of Facebook

I’m not sure it is just Facebook. Engagement is driven more by contact with “content” you hate then content you enjoy. As in people exposed to things they hate tend to get them to spend longer on a platform and post more “content” of their own (mostly “look at those assholes over there!” and “you moron!”).

So many social media sites feed you content you engage with without regard to how much you say you dislike it. Some use any “dislike” signals as a “I want to see more like this” signal. Some weight it more strongly than a “normal” upvote.

Which isn’t to say Facebook wasn’t doing this (or even out in front), just that they are far from alone.

My personal pet theory is it is bad for engagement long term. Feed people enough stuff they hate and they quit your platform. It is just my theory though, I don’t have a study backing it up, let alone one saying the overall effect is stronger then the hate fed boom cycles (nor of corse the holy grail, how to tell when someone is about to rage quit a platform so you can feed them just puppy dog pictures and kittens having cheeseburgers…and how to tell when they are recharged enough to feed them bullshit about facemarks causing autism).

[eccentriccog]

… didn’t Facebook also just tweak the algorithm to really emphasize its pages and groups? I’ve been seeing all sorts of complaints about not seeing small creators and friends nearly as much.

If that’s the case, then why the sudden turn?

[Malarkey]

[euansmith]

Apparently, I am the USS Ulysses S. Grant (SSBN 631); a Boomer launched in 1963. I am silent, but deadly; though I am no longer packed to the brim with virile seamen.