About 67 percent of American adults somewhat rely on social media platforms such as Facebook Inc, Twitter Inc and Snapchat for news, the survey showed, compared with 62 percent in 2016. For the first time in the Center’s surveys, the research also found that 55 percent of Americans adults over 50 were consuming news on social media sites, up from 45 percent in 2016. “While a small increase overall, this growth is driven by more substantial increases among Americans who are older, less educated, and non-white,” the research said.
Two-thirds of American adults get news from social media: survey
We could go on for hours about all of the rules that TV networks and local stations have to follow that social media sites don't. But let's just focus on the key rules surrounding the broadcasting of political ads that even the smallest local station has to follow and the multi-billion dollar cash cow Facebook does not. Any request from any source to purchase ad time dealing with a federal candidate has to be put in the station's political file, which is open to public inspection. And here's the information about the ad request that needs to be in that file: (These are all according to the FCC guidebook): The name of the group sponsoring the ad The group's principal officers or directors Whether the request to buy time was accepted or rejected The class of time purchased The rate charged The name of the candidates the ad refers to The exact time the spots ran
Russian election meddling gives Facebook good reason to be afraid—Commentary
Executives for the social media company said Friday they will verify political ad buyers in federal elections, requiring them to provide correct names and locations, and to create new graphics where users can click on the ads and find out more about who's behind them. More broadly, Rob Goldman, Facebook's vice president in charge of ad products, said the company was building new transparency tools in which all advertisers — including those that aren't political — are associated with a page, and users can click on a link to see all the ads any advertiser is running.
Facebook announces new ad transparency before Russia hearing - LA Times