Meta Platforms announced on Tuesday that it will discontinue the "Facebook News" feature on the social media platform in the UK, France, and Germany later this year. Meta added that users will still be able to see links to news content, and European news publishers will continue to access their accounts and pages on Facebook after the modification is implemented in December. However, Facebook will not enter into new commercial agreements to obtain news content for "Facebook News" and will not provide product innovations for news publishers in these countries.
Meta stated in a post that "news makes up less than three percent of the material people view around the world on Facebook, so exploring news is a small part of the Facebook experience for the vast majority of people." The company, along with Alphabet, has faced increasing pressure from lawmakers worldwide to share a higher percentage of advertising revenue with news publishers.
Meta began blocking news on its platforms, Facebook and Instagram, for all users in Canada in response to a new law requiring major internet companies to pay news publishers. Australia enacted a similar law in 2021.
