Facebook is making many changes to how it operates in the EU due to the local regulatory entities. Besides taking into consideration paid versions of Facebook and Instagram in Europe, Meta is also removing the new tab in some countries later this year.
Meta announced today that it will discontinue the Facebook News dedicated tab in the UK, France, and Germany in early December. The move seems to be an attempt to cut costs and focus instead on the products that bring the company a steady flow of income.
According to Meta, news makes up less than 3 percent of what people around the world see in their Facebook feed, which basically means that news discovery is a very small part of the experience offered by the social network for the majority of its users.
The company also said that it must focus its time and resources “on things people tell us they want to see more on the platform, including short-form video.” Meta acknowledged that people don’t come to Facebook for news and political content but to connect with people and discover new opportunities and interests.
While we’ll be deprecating Facebook News in these countries, we will honor our obligations under all existing Facebook News deals with publishers in the UK, France, and Germany until they expire. However, to ensure that we continue to invest in those products and services that drive user engagement, we will not enter into new commercial deals for news content on Facebook News in these countries.
Even though Facebook users in the UK, France, and Germany will lose access to the Facebook News dedicated tab, but they will still be able to view links to news articles on Facebook.
Additionally, Facebook confirmed that European news publishers will continue to have access to their accounts and pages, where they can post links to their stories and direct people to their websites.