Facebook News tab to be discontinued in the UK, Germany and France by December

Meta is set to eliminate Facebook News tab in several countries after the removal of Canada’s Facebook news tab. The company has announced plans to remove the dedicated news section from its platform in the United Kingdom (UK), France, and Germany, with the changes expected to take effect in early December. According to Meta, this effort is to funnel resources toward services and products users care more about.

Speaking on this, Meta confirmed its commitment to honouring existing agreements with publishers in the UK, France, and Germany related to Facebook news. However, the company clarified that it will not renew these agreements or engage in new ones in these countries. Furthermore, the company added that it does not anticipate introducing new Facebook products specifically tailored for news publishers in the future.

As news content currently comprises less than three per cent of the content displayed in users’ Facebook feeds, Meta asserts that users are primarily focused on short-form videos, connecting with others, and discovering opportunities, interests, and passions.

Notably, earlier this year, Meta shifted from human curators to using algorithms to feature stories in the Facebook News tab. Also, when introducing its new platform, Threads, Meta stated that news would not be a primary focus there. This is despite Threads being positioned as a competitor to X (formerly Twitter), which has traditionally been a hub for news and real-time events discussion for more than a decade.

Unlike its actions in Canada where Meta had blocked news content in protest of a proposed law that would require payment to publishers in the country, the company has assured news organizations that they can still share links, Reels, and other content on Facebook in the aforementioned three territories and that users in these countries will not encounter any disruptions in accessing news content as a result of this change.

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Facebook news tab removal in Canada

The Facebook parent company’s choice to completely remove news content in Canada has sparked controversy and received criticism.

In response, the Canadian government proposed that Meta would need to pay publishers approximately $62 million CAD ($45.5 million USD) annually to comply with its Online News Act and continue offering news content on Facebook and Instagram in the country.

The company however said it will not accept the terms of a new amendment proposed by Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. The law would compel the social media giant to pay news providers for their news content on Facebook, Bloomberg reports.

The amendment by the prime minister is aimed at compelling the tech giants, not only Facebook, to compensate news organizations for their content. It comes after a long campaign by the government to make social media giants pay news organizations for their content on its platform.

The legislation stipulates that both Meta and Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, must remit a minimum of 4% of their annual revenues generated within Canada to news outlets in exchange for featuring links to news articles.

“As the legislation is based on the incorrect assertion that Meta benefits unfairly from the news content shared on our platforms, today’s proposed regulations will not impact our business decision to end news availability in Canada,” Rachel Curran, head of public policy for the company in Canada, said by email.

The move significantly changes the game for social media companies in the country and their business model. In the same breath, it positions the prime minister as a leader who will defend the free press and the sustainability of the work of the news media in the age of digital advertising, which has made Google and Facebook some of the most valuable companies in the world.

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