Meta’s hold on publishers runs deeper than clicks

British publishers have gained a competition inquiry into Meta’s business terms and a pause in their introduction. The harder question is what it would cost to leave Facebook or Instagram. Publishers challenging the proposed use of their journalism need to show the value of the services they still use, even when those services send fewer readers to their websites.

“Access to audiences should not come at the price of publishers’ content,” Sajeeda Merali, chief executive of the Professional Publishers Association (PPA), said in its 30 October statement. Her members’ objection is commercially precise: winning subscribers and serving advertisers should not require accepting broader uses of their journalism.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opened its investigation on 30 October. It is examining whether Meta holds a dominant position in relevant UK markets and whether its commercial terms abuse that position. No infringement has been established. For publishers, the useful change is a formal route to test the conditions of access, rather than another exchange of public assurances.