Meta will be sunsetting Facebook News in early April for users in the US and Australia as the platform further deemphasises news and politics. The feature was shut down in the UK, France and Germany last year.
Launched in 2019, the News tab curated headlines from national and international news organisations, as well as smaller, local publications.
Meta says users will still be able to view links to news articles, and news organisations will still be able to post and promote their stories and websites, as any other individual or organisation can on Facebook.
The change comes as Meta tries to scale back news and political content on its platforms following years of criticism about how it handles misinformation and whether it contributes to political polarisation.
But misinformation remains a challenge for the company, especially as the US presidential election and other races get underway.
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“I would say if you’ve been watching, you could see this coming, but it’s one more very hurtful thing to the business of news,” Edmonds said.
News makes up less than 3 per cent of what users worldwide see in their Facebook feeds, Meta said, adding that the number of people using Facebook News in Australia and the US dropped by over 80 per cent last year.
However, according to a 2023 Pew Research study, half of US adults get news at least sometimes from social media. And one platform outpaces the rest: Facebook.
Three in 10 US adults say they regularly get news from Facebook, according to Pew, and 16 per cent of US adults say they regularly get news from Instagram, also owned by Meta.
Instagram users recently expressed dissatisfaction with the app’s choice to stop “proactively” recommending political content posted on accounts that users don’t follow. While the option to turn off the filter was always available in user settings, many people were not aware Meta made the change.
First Published: Mar 29 2024 | 7:58 AM IST