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Digital sources have become an important part of Americans’ news diets – and social media plays a crucial role, particularly for younger adults. As of 2026, more than half of U.S. adults (59%) say they get news from social media at least sometimes, up slightly compared with the last few years.
This Pew Research Center fact sheet looks at trends in how people get news from social media sites.
As social media continues to play an important role in how Americans get news, we conducted this research to better understand which platforms people turn to for news and how these habits have changed over time.
For this analysis, we surveyed 5,166 U.S. adults from Aug. 24 to 30, 2026. Everyone who took part in these surveys is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel. The surveys represent the views of the full U.S. adult population.
Here are the questions used for this analysis, the topline and the survey methodology.
Facebook and YouTube continue to outpace all other social media sites when it comes to news consumption: 40% of U.S. adults say they regularly get news on Facebook, and 34% say the same about YouTube.
Smaller shares of Americans regularly get news on Instagram (23%) and TikTok (20%). Fewer say they get news on X, formerly known as Twitter (10%), Reddit (9%), Nextdoor (8%), LinkedIn (6%), WhatsApp (5%), Rumble (2%), Truth Social (2%) or Bluesky (1%).
Regardless of overall audience size, some social media sites stand out for having a large share of users who get news there. For example, 57% of both X users and Facebook users say they regularly get news there, as do 53% of TikTok users and 46% of Instagram users. The shares of Facebook and Instagram users who report getting news on these sites – both owned by Meta – have risen in recent years.
Almost half of users on the community forum app Nextdoor (45%) report regularly getting news there, up from 33% in 2025.
The people who regularly get news on different social media sites often differ by gender, age and other factors. For example, women are more likely to regularly get news from Facebook and TikTok, while men are more likely to get news from YouTube and X.
Younger adults are more likely than older people to be regular news consumers on TikTok, Instagram and Reddit. Black, Hispanic and Asian Americans are more likely than White Americans to regularly get news from YouTube, Instagram and WhatsApp. And adults without a college degree are more likely than college graduates to get news from Facebook and TikTok.
Democrats, including independents who lean toward the Democratic Party, are more likely than Republicans and Republican leaners to get news from Instagram, TikTok and Reddit, while Republicans are slightly more likely than Democrats to say they get news from Facebook and X. Roughly equal shares of Democrats and Republicans say they regularly get news from YouTube.
(Read the appendix for demographic profiles and party identification of regular U.S. news consumers on each of these social media platforms.)
This fact sheet was compiled by Research Analyst Christopher St. Aubin and Research Assistant Joanne Haner.
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ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan, nonadvocacy fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It does not take policy positions. The Center conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, computational social science research and other data-driven research. Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, its primary funder.
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