Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has announced the impending sunset of Facebook News in early April for users in the United States and Australia, marking a further shift away from prioritizing news and political content on the platform. This decision follows the closure of the feature in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany last year.
Introduced in 2019, the News tab served as a curated space for headlines from both national and international news outlets, as well as smaller local publications.
Despite the discontinuation of the News tab, Meta assures users that they will still have access to news articles via shared links, and news organizations will retain the ability to post and promote their content on Facebook like any other individual or entity.
The move comes as Meta endeavours to reduce the prominence of news and political content across its platforms in response to longstanding criticism regarding its handling of misinformation and concerns about its potential contribution to political polarization.
According to Dani Lever, a spokesperson for Meta, this change will not affect posts from accounts that users choose to follow; rather, it will impact the system’s recommendations. Lever emphasized that users have control over their content preferences, aligning with Meta’s ongoing efforts to address user feedback and preferences regarding political content.
Despite this shift, Meta asserts that its fact-checking network and efforts to combat misinformation remain unaffected.
However, misinformation continues to pose challenges for the company, particularly with significant political events such as the U.S. presidential election looming on the horizon.
Sarah Kreps, director of the Tech Policy Institute at the Cornell Brooks School of Public Policy, noted Meta’s evolution from a tech platform to a significant player in political discourse. Kreps believes that Meta’s recent moves reflect an attempt to mitigate its role in political controversies and avoid becoming a focal point in political debates.
Media analyst Rick Edmonds of Poynter acknowledges the declining traffic to news websites originating from Facebook and suggests that news organizations have been anticipating this development. He emphasizes the need for news outlets to diversify their audience acquisition strategies beyond social media platforms.
Despite Meta’s assertion that news comprises less than 3% of users’ Facebook feeds globally, recent Pew Research data indicates that a significant portion of U.S. adults still rely on social media platforms for news, with Facebook being the primary source for many.
Instagram, also owned by Meta, faces similar scrutiny as it recently ceased “proactively” recommending political content from accounts users don’t follow, prompting dissatisfaction among users who were unaware of the change.
