Meta plans to "deprecate" Facebook News in the UK, France and Germany, removing its dedicated news tab in December.
This is part of a plan to “better align our investments to our products and services people value the most,” the tech giant said.
Meta will honor existing contracts with publishers in the three countries until they expire, but will not enter into any new ones.
Also, Meta does “not expect to offer new Facebook products specifically for news publishers in the future.”
However, publishers can continue to post news article links and content to their Facebook pages.
And, news organizations can “still leverage products like Reels and our ads system to reach broader audiences and drive people to their website, where they keep 100% of the revenue derived from outbound links on Facebook,” Meta continues.
News makes up “less than 3% of what people around the world see in their Facebook feed, so news discovery is a small part of the Facebook experience for the vast majority of people,” Meta adds.
This is happening as Meta blocks news content in Canada in response to passage of the Online News Act (C-18), a bill that requires it to compensate publishers for using their content in links. It also threatens to do so in U.S. states that pass such laws.
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