Meta plans to remove news content on Facebook starting December for users in European countries. Residents of the UK, France and Germany will no longer be able to access the Facebook News bar.
The reason Meta removed news on Facebook was an effort to focus investment on the products and services that are most valuable to users. According to Meta, news only accounts for 3 percent of the content accessed by Facebook users.
Meta, which also owns the Instagram and WhatsApp platforms, plans to spend more resources and time managing short video products similar to TikTok.
Facebook News is a product available to Facebook users since 2019. Facebook stated at the time that the dedicated news bar was “built to bring people closer to the stories that impact their lives.”
Meta stated that they would continue to fulfill their obligations to their partner news publishers in countries affected by the removal of Facebook News. However, Facebook will not discuss new deals or offer new products to news publishing companies.
Meta’s decision to start getting rid of Facebook News is part of the company led by Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to separate itself from the news business.
Meta recently shut down Canadians’ access to news content on Facebook and Instagram. This step was taken after the Canadian government passed online news regulations which require technology companies to pay news companies for each content circulating on their respective platforms.
This regulation in Canada was rejected by Meta on the grounds that it “does not represent the value that news publishers gain when they choose to use our platform” and is “based on the false premise that Meta profits from news content shared on our platform.”
According to CNBC International, observers criticized Meta’s move to block news because it could have an impact on increasing the wave of fake news, misinformation and destroying local news entities.
Source : CNBC
