Davos 2025: RSF calls on advertisers to take responsibility as social media giants stoke disinformation and anti-journalist sentiment
For the second year running, the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos has ranked disinformation as the greatest short-term risk to society. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) agrees, and calls on advertisers to take responsibility when it comes to the threats that major online platforms — especially those that embody the values of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg — pose to accessing reliable information and quality journalism.
RSF supports the WEF “Global Risks Report’s 2025” conclusion that disinformation tops the list of short-term threats to society and elaborates on the situation: disinformation circulates massively on social media, whose economic power largely depends on their advertising revenue.
Social media advertising is dominated by Meta, which received 63 per cent of advertising spending on the global social media market in 2024, according to the marketing agency WARC. Thanks to this revenue, the group is now an economic empire reshaping the way its users access information. On 7 January 2025, its founder Mark Zuckerberg announced new anti-journalism policies that further degraded the company’s respect for the public’s right to quality information.
“Online platforms are nothing without advertisers' budgets — it is their money that enabled the platforms to become so powerful. The risks to both the right to information and these companies’ reputations are growing. We call on advertisers to take responsibility and put pressure on these platforms to protect the public’s access to information and the dissemination of journalistic content. One possible solution would be to require these platforms to promote reliable sources of information by using international quality standards such as the Journalism Trust Initiative.
The policies of major social media companies such as Meta and X towards the media have turned into a relentless assault on journalism. RSF calls on advertisers to use their influence to demand that these companies — starting with Meta — to:
- Promote reliable sources of information: It is imperative that platforms' algorithms give priority to content from media outlets that comply with strict criteria for producing journalistic content, such as those defined by the Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI).
- Distinguish between journalists and influencers who do not produce reliable information of public interest: influencers who do not produce reliable, independent public-interest information must not be equated with individuals or outlets that produce professional journalistic information of public interest following precise ethical standards. Content must be clearly categorized based on its origins, and influencers should adhere to a specific code of conduct requiring them to maintain greater transparency and take more responsibility vis à vis their audience and clients.
- Distinguish between deepfakes and authentic content: Reporting content generated by artificial intelligence (AI) is a first step, but it is not enough to counter deepfakes. Authentic content created by journalists must also be given an algorithmic advantage, particularly on social and election-related issues.
- Regulating the use of generative artificial intelligence: most of today's digital giants are preparing to become tomorrow's generative AI behemoths. Their strategy is formidable: they use the content shared on their platforms to develop new generative AI products and services, which then produce new content for these same platforms. Advertisers must demand that these systems are designed ethically, prioritising reliable information and diverse data.
