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The Intercept Got Zucked

Earlier this year, we noticed something strange about our website traffic:  The number of people coming to The Intercept from stories shared on Facebook had fallen off a cliff. In a single year, our Facebook traffic dropped by a whopping 53 percent. The number of visitors  from our own Facebook page  dropped by 83 percent. This drop-off is being felt across the industry, confirming what we’ve long suspected:  Facebook has changed its news feed algorithm to suppress links to legitimate news sources like The Intercept.  Fewer readers means fewer donations — and for a nonprofit news outlet like us, that’s a serious issue. Our ongoing investigations of corporate corruption, government malfeasance, and the dark money pouring into 2024 elections simply depend on reader support… Facebook has been gradually throttling hard news for a while — replacing it with content that’s upbeat and advertiser-friendly.  But what we’ve seen this year is unprecedented.  In the words of one news publisher, “Fa
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The War on Migrants: Senegal

Nobody in Fass Boye seemed to blame the migrants for taking the risk. More than a third of the country lives in poverty, according to the World Bank. The young see few opportunities at home. "Macky Sall sold the ocean," said Assane Niang, a 23-year-old fishing captain, referring to the Senegalese president. Fishermen in Fass Boye say the government has granted too many licences to foreign trawlers, which overfish their waters and deplete the catch. “Barcelona or death”
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The War on Migrants: The Mellila Massacre

Official figures from that day indicate that of the roughly 1,700 migrants who attempted to cross the border, 133 were able to claim asylum; 470 individuals, like Basir, entered Spanish territory, but were forcibly returned to Morocco. At least 37 people died, and 77 people remain unaccounted for. The event quickly came to be known as “ the Melilla massacre ”. “I suppose we weren’t human any more, we were just like animals.” —Basir, a 24-year-old Sudanese man
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