Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has announced that it won't be making any new deals with traditional news outlets in Australia, France, and Germany. Additionally, they won't be introducing any new features specifically for news publishers on Facebook in the future.
Discontinuation of Facebook news
Facebook News, a dedicated section for news content, will be discontinued in the US and Australia starting in early April. This section was already removed in the UK, France, and Germany last year.
Continued access to news content
However, people in these countries will still be able to see news articles in their Facebook feeds as usual. News publishers will also continue to have access to their Facebook accounts and Pages, where they can share their news articles and content.
Existing agreements with news publishers in Australia, France, and Germany regarding Facebook News will remain unchanged until they expire.
Decline in Facebook news usage
Reportedly, the number of people using Facebook News in Australia and the US has decreased significantly, with over an 80 per cent drop in users last year.
Proportion of news content on Facebook
Meta also emphasised that news content makes up only a small fraction of what people see on Facebook, accounting for less than 3 per cent of content in users' feeds worldwide.
Despite this change, news organisations can still use other features on Facebook, such as Reels and the ads system, to reach wider audiences and direct people to their websites. They will also continue to keep all the revenue generated from outbound links on Facebook.
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