Meta to Discontinue ‘Facebook News’ Feature in Select European Nations
(Reuters) – Meta Platforms said on Tuesday it will end the “Facebook News” feature on its social media app in Britain, France and Germany later this year.
Users will still be able to see links to news articles and European news publishers will still be able to access their Facebook accounts and pages after the change takes effect in December, Meta said.
However, Facebook does not enter into new commercial agreements for news content in “Facebook News” and does not offer product innovations to news publishers in these countries.
“Facebook News”, which aggregates news articles, has its own tab in the bookmarks section of the Facebook app.
“News makes up less than 3% of what people around the world see in their Facebook feed, so finding news is a small part of the Facebook experience for most people,” Meta said in a blog post.
Along with Big Tech peer Alphabet, the company has come under increasing pressure from lawmakers around the world to share a larger percentage of its advertising revenue with news publishers.
Meta has begun blocking news on its Facebook and Instagram platforms from all users in Canada in response to a new law requiring internet giants to pay news publishers. Australia introduced a similar law in 2021.
