Pew: 30% of US adults regularly get their news from Facebook, 26% from YouTube, 16% from Instagram, 14% TikTok, 12% X, 8% Reddit, and 5% Nextdoor and LinkedIn
Facebook may be ready to divorce the news business, but it's still the No. 1 source of news on social media for Americans.
Context & Ripple Effects
This reading updates Pew’s 2021 baseline, when Facebook was also the leading regular social-news source, at 36% of U.S. adults, versus 23% for YouTube. The newer results preserve Facebook’s lead while showing YouTube closer behind, making the ranking—not merely overall social-media use—the important signal.
The result matters because social platforms remain meaningful news-distribution gateways even as their audience profiles and product priorities differ. A later Pew usage survey found YouTube used by more adults than Facebook, underscoring that platform reach and regular news use are distinct measures.
First-order effects
- Facebook remains the largest reported regular social-news source among the listed platforms, while YouTube is the closest alternative; publishers seeking social referral exposure must still treat both as primary distribution channels.
- Instagram, TikTok, X, Reddit, Nextdoor, and LinkedIn occupy smaller reported roles for regular news use, limiting their comparable reach for broadly targeted news distribution.
Second-order effects
- Publishers and news creators have an incentive to tailor formats to the two leading gateways—Facebook-native posts and video-first YouTube distribution—rather than assuming general platform audience size translates directly into news reach.
- The gap between reported platform use and news use makes social-news measurement more important for advertisers, publishers, and platforms: a large user base alone does not establish equivalent news-distribution value.
Third-order effects
- If these relative patterns persist, news distribution will remain concentrated in a small set of general-purpose platforms, leaving publishers exposed to changes in ranking, recommendation, and linking policies.
- The rise of video-oriented news access alongside Facebook’s continuing lead points toward a more format-dependent social-news market, where video production capability can shape which outlets can compete for attention.
The trend: Social news consumption is shifting toward a mixed platform market in which Facebook retains legacy distribution strength while YouTube’s video-led gateway becomes increasingly consequential.