In a significant announcement today, Facebook has revealed it will phase out its Facebook News feature in the UK, France, and Germany by early December.
Facebook says the decision to deprecate Facebook News, a dedicated tab within the bookmarks section spotlighting news, is driven by user behavior.
People primarily visit Facebook for social connections, discovering new opportunities, passions, and interests, rather than news and political content. In fact, news constitutes less than 3% of the content in users’ Facebook feeds worldwide.
Despite this change, Facebook users in these European countries will still be able to access news articles through links on the platform.
European news publishers will retain access to their Facebook accounts and Pages, enabling them to share links to their stories and direct users to their websites just like any other user or organization.
Moreover, news organizations can continue utilizing features like Reels and the ads system to expand their audience reach and drive traffic to their websites, with 100% of the revenue from outbound links on Facebook retained.
Importantly, Facebook will honor its existing agreements with news publishers in the UK, France, and Germany until their respective expiration dates.
However, the company does not intend to initiate new commercial deals for news content on Facebook News in these countries, nor does it foresee the launch of new Facebook products specifically tailored for news publishers.
It’s essential to note that these changes do not impact Facebook’s commitment to providing users with reliable information.
The company collaborates with independent third-party fact-checkers certified through the International Fact-Checking Network.
Since 2016, Facebook has contributed more than $100 million to support fact-checking efforts, aiming to combat the spread of misinformation, and it remains dedicated to further investments in this area.
