Carl Court
Meta Platforms’ (NASDAQ:META) Facebook will do away with its dedicated news tab in the U.S. and Australia in early April as part of efforts to better align its investments to products and services that users value the most, such as short form video.
The move comes months after Facebook ended the news tab in the U.K., France and Germany late last year amid pressure from governments around the world to pay publishers for news. Meta (META) also ended access to news on Facebook and Instagram in Canada.
“The number of people using Facebook News in Australia and the U.S. has dropped by over 80% last year,” the company said in a blog post.
“People will still be able to view links to news articles on Facebook,” it noted, adding that news publishers can still post links to their stories and direct people to their websites.
The move will not impact the terms of existing Facebook News agreements with publishers in Australia, France and Germany. These deals have already expired in the U.S. and the U.K.
“We will not enter new commercial deals for traditional news content in these countries and will not offer new Facebook products specifically for news publishers in the future,” the social media firm said.
