Meta Dropping Facebook News in US, Australia in April

Meta will close Facebook News in the United States and Australia in April.

This move comes after the company did the same thing in the United Kingdom, France and Germany in September 2023, Meta said in a Friday (March 29) update.

“This is part of an ongoing effort to better align our investments to our products and services people value the most,” the company said in the update.

The number of people using Facebook News, which is dedicated tab for news content, dropped by 80% over the last year in Australia and the U.S., according to the update.

In addition, news makes up less than 3% of the content people around the world see in their Facebook feed, the update said.

Meta has found that people are more interested in short-form video and other forms of content on the platform, per the update.

“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,” the update said.

The changes to Facebook News will not affect other products and services, according to the update. Users will still be able to see links to news articles on the platform, and news publishers will still have access to their accounts and pages and be able to post links to their stories.

The company’s existing Facebook News agreements with publishers in Australia, France and Germany will continue until they expire, per the update. Agreements with publishers in the U.K. and the U.S. have already expired.

“Additionally, to ensure that we continue to invest in products and services that drive user engagement, we will not enter into new commercial deals for traditional news content in these countries and will not offer new Facebook products specifically for news publishers in the future,” the update said.

Meta has clashed with other organizations about news content. In May 2023, the company said it would eliminate news content from its headquarters in California if the state government passed a bill requiring tech firms to compensate publishers for journalistic content.

The company has also engaged in comparable disputes concerning remuneration for news providers on a national and international level.