Facebook News will soon be closed down as it stops paying news publishers' licenses for their content on the platform.
In a press release, Facebook's parent company, Meta, announced that it will "deprecate" Facebook News in the U.S. and Australia by 2024 as part of its "ongoing effort to better align our investments."
Meta has already started removing the News tab on European nations, particularly in the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
The company reasoned the 80% drop in the tab's user rate last year, admitting that "people don't come to Facebook for news and political content."
It is worth noting that media companies will still be able to upload news content on Facebook, as well as earn profits from it. However, they will no longer have access to the dedicated tab and licensing deals with Meta.
Also Read: Meta Shuts Down Third-Party Access to Facebook Groups
Meta Moves Away from Political Content
The closure of Facebook News is the latest move from Meta's shift towards entertainment content rather than providing a platform for news and politics.
Meta previously announced it would reduce recommending political content on Instagram and Threads.
Political posts can still be seen if the user is a follower of the account or page, otherwise, the outside reach is expected to be minimal.
Several users have already expressed opposition to Meta's new content focus, especially with the company pushing for a trending topics list for its platform.
Politics are among the most commonly discussed topics on social media and online forums. An automated block is seen as Meta ramping up its censorship against certain posts on the platform.
It does not help that Facebook has been known to hide posts in support of Palestine and other Muslim countries as a supposed violation of its anti-hate speech and violence policies.
Related Article: Instagram, Threads to Reduce Recommending Political Content
How to Still Receive News on Meta?
Despite the changes, users can still use Facebook and other Meta platforms to gain news.
Following official news pages will ensure that posts will remain visible on the timeline and will not be hidden by the algorithm.
Another method is using a VPN to gain access to News Tab from counties not yet affected by the deprecation
As of press time, Meta has not confirmed that it will remove the tab for all of its services in different countries.
