Fairer Feeds: Public interest news, prominence rules, and the future of discoverability on platforms
In 2026, large technology companies are significantly influencing how and which information citizens have access to with concerning impacts on the overall functioning of democracy.
The algorithmic design choices and content prioritisation processes of online platforms mean that public interest news sources struggle for discoverability. Referral traffic is declining, media organisations face financial consequences that threaten their long-term survival, and misinformation continues to spread.
In an age of linear television, prominence and ‘must carry’ rules for public service broadcasters ensured that citizens could easily access accurate and trusted information. But, with audiences increasingly turning to online platforms to access information, these rules no longer fit with our media consumption habits.
Against this backdrop, Fairer Feeds recommends updating the UK’s existing prominence rules ensuring that content prioritisation processes on platforms allow citizens to consistently access public interest information and fulfil their basic democratic needs.
The paper makes the following recommendations for new prominence requirements in the platform environment:
- Statutory prominence for public service broadcasters on video-sharing platforms.
- Algorithmic prominence for ‘public interest’ news sources on social media. platforms. A parameter-based approach to algorithmic prominence should support media plurality on social media feeds, based on standards for trustworthy editorial workflows, procedural fairness, and transparency.
- A 5% levy on video-sharing platforms for a UK Public Interest Content Fund. Following international precedents in Canada and France, the government should require video-sharing platforms to contribute their annual UK revenue to support grant-funding and provide financial sustainability for diverse UK media creators.
A second set of enabling recommendations provide the overarching governance conditions of transparency and accountability to ensure that new prominence rules uphold democratic standards, and safeguard media pluralism and independence:
- Co-regulatory and multi-stakeholder governance mechanisms. The new body overseeing the UK’s prominence regime would not be subject to single points of control and would be independent from government to safeguard against capture.
- Appeals processes for contesting prioritisation outcomes. Robust appeals opportunities must enable the public to contest content prioritisation decisions on platforms.
- Algorithmic transparency and platform data access. Meaningful transparency requirements on platforms must enable scrutiny from media organisations and the public on recommender algorithm parameters and content flow insights.
- Public awareness research. The government must conduct public research to ensure sufficient awareness of the benefits for citizens of new prominence rules.
This is the latest report in Demos Digital’s Epistemic Security programme that focuses on securing the UK’s information supply chains and building our democratic resilience to adverse influences. For further reading and Demos research on how to strengthen public service media, please see: