- Facebook users in the UK, France and Germany will soon not be able to access a tab dedicated to viewing news articles.
- The social networking giant added that it plans to spend more time and money on short videos.
- The decision to shut down Facebook News for some European users comes after the company recently shut down access to news on Facebook and Instagram in Canada in response to a new law requiring tech companies to pay news outlets for distribution of their content.
Andrew Ross Sorkin speaks with CEO and Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg during the New York Times DealBook Summit in the Appel Room at Jazz At Lincoln Center in New York City, November 30, 2022.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
Facebook users in the UK, France and Germany will no longer see a section dedicated to news articles starting in December.
Meta said Tuesday that it plans to “discontinue” the Facebook News tab in early December for users in those European countries “as part of an ongoing effort to better align our investments with the products and services that people value most.”
The company added that it plans to spend more time and money on short videos, as evidenced best by its TikTok-like Reels product. Meta said news accounts for less than 3% of what people see on their Facebook feeds.
Meta said it would honor Facebook News’ commitments to publishers in those countries, but said it would not enter into new deals and had no plans to introduce new products to news publishers.
Meta first appeared on Facebook News in 2019, saying at the time that the product was “designed to bring people closer to the stories that affect their lives.”
The decision to shut down Facebook News is part of a broader move away from the news business. The company recently shut down access to news on Facebook and Instagram in Canada after its government passed the Online News Act, which requires tech companies to pay content fees to media outlets in the country.
Meta disagreed with Canadian law, saying that “the legislation misrepresents the value news outlets receive when choosing to use our platforms” and that it “is based on the incorrect premise that Meta benefits unfairly from news content shared on our platforms”.
Some news experts have criticized Meta’s decision to prevent users from viewing or posting links to news in Canada, saying it could lead to a rise in misinformation and negatively impact local news organizations.
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(tags for translation)Germany