Meta to scrap news feature for Facebook users in US in latest broadside to media companies
NY Post
Meta said it will scrap Facebook’s news feature for US and Australian users in April – setting up a possible showdown with lawmakers in both countries who have ripped the tech giant’s treatment of the media industry.
Meta said in a blog post late Thursday it “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.”
Mark Zuckerberg’s social media giant said getting rid of Facebook’s “News Tab” was “part of an ongoing effort to better align our investments to our products and services people value the most.” The company said the number of people using the News Tab in both countries dropped by more than 80% in 2023.
“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,” Meta said in the blog post.
In the US, the removal of Facebook’s “News Tab” is the just the latest sign of pullback by Meta. In 2022, the company began telling US news publishers it would no longer pay for content and pulled all funding for the deals.
On Friday, News/Media Alliance, a nonprofit advocacy group that represents hundreds of news outlets, shredded Meta for ending the service.
