Meta has announced that the Facebook News feature will be deprecated from the UK, France, and Germany bookmarks section in early December.
The decision is part of Meta’s effort to align its investments with the products and services users value the most. They explain that people primarily come to Facebook to connect with others and discover new opportunities, passions, and interests rather than for news and political content.
We can take out these main points from the announcement:
- Reason for Deprecation: Facebook News is being deprecated in certain countries to prioritize short-form videos over news content, which accounts for less than 3% of Facebook’s content globally.
- Impact on Users: Facebook News deprecation won’t affect other Meta products/services in these countries. Users can still view news article links on Facebook, and European publishers can post links to their stories.
- Commercial Deals: Meta will not enter into new commercial deals for news content on Facebook News in the UK, France, and Germany and has no plans to offer new products for news publishers in these countries. They will honor current deals until they expire in the future.
In summary, Meta is discontinuing the Facebook News feature in the UK, France, and Germany but assures users and publishers that they remain committed to providing reliable information on their platforms and combating misinformation through partnerships with fact-checkers.
Facebook recently dropped its news feature in Canada, after that country passed an “Online News Act,” which calls for Facebook and others to pay for news they acquire from other sources.
