Meta to drop 'Facebook News' tab in U.S. and Australia in April
March 1 (UPI) -- Meta plans to remove the Facebook News tab from the social media platform in the United States and Australia in April.
The company said in a blog post Thursday that it made the decision because the feature was rarely used, adding that news makes up less than 3% of what users see in their feeds and asserting "people don't come to Facebook for news and political content."
"This is part of an ongoing effort to better align our investments to our products and services people value the most," Meta said. "As a company, we have to focus our time and resources on things people tell us they want to see more of on the platform, including short-form video."
The move comes after Meta removed the Facebook News tab in Britain, France and Germany last year.
The company noted that people in these countries will still be able to view news on their feeds and news publishers can still access and post news content including article links on the platform as well as utilizing other services such as advertisements and short-form "Reels" videos to expand their reach, while maintaining 100% of revenue from outgoing links on Facebook.
This decision continues a Facebook exit from news distribution that is heavily impacting referral traffic for news content producers.
Facebook's existing news agreements in Australia, France and Germany are not affected for now. But when they expire they won't be renewed.
The U.S. and Britain Facebook news deals are already expired.
"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," Meta said.
Revenue is at the heart of the decision since news producers have sought over the years to be paid for Facebook using their content while Facebook resisted paying for the content.
Last summer Facebook blocked news on its platform in Canada after the Online News Act was passed requiring Meta to pay news publishers for using their content.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau blasted parent company Meta for blocking news during a massive wildfire emergency.
How Facebook presents news has led to misinformation controversies and issues with policies on moderating and fact-checking content.
In 2021 Facebook decided to no longer allow Australian users and news publishers to post links to news articles after a law was proposed requiring tech companies to pay publishers a fee for linking to news content.
Facebook reversed that decision after reaching an agreement with Australia's government.
