Facebook's News Feed will permanently shut down in April in the US and Australia . It is the decision of the company led by Mark Zuckerberg, which will not enter into new commercial agreements and "will not offer new Facebook products specifically for news publishers in the future" .
Meta made this known in an official post.
The section was launched in 2019, and was already deactivated last year in France, Germany and the United Kingdom . The decision - explains the Menlo Park company - «is part of an ongoing effort to better align our investments with the products and services that people appreciate most. We know that people don't come to Facebook for news and political content – they come to connect with people and discover new opportunities, passions and interests. As we've explained in 2023, news accounts for less than 3% of what people around the world see in their feed."
Meta is keen to point out that the changes affecting Facebook News will not impact its products and services in these countries and people will still be able to view links to news articles on Facebook. News publishers will continue to have access to their accounts and pages, in the same way as any other individual or organisation. Deprived of the opportunity to monetize through Facebook News, newspapers will therefore have to rely on traditional methods (posts, stories, reels) to publish news and use external links to increase traffic on the sites.
Meta also announced that it will not enter into new commercial deals for traditional news content and that it will not offer new Facebook products specifically for news publishers in the future , reflecting the social media's growing disinterest in the publishing sector. The company has instead specified that collaborations with existing third-party fact checkers will remain in place to continue the fight against misinformation.
(Unioneonline/vl)
