Facebook plans to shut down its news tab in the US and Australia

Facebook has announced that it will be cancelling Facebook News, a dedicated tab for news content, in the US and Australia in early April. This comes after the company had already cancelled Facebook News in the UK, France and Germany last year.

Here's What We Know

The company explained that this is part of an ongoing effort to better align its investments with the products and services that people value most. The company said that people don't come to Facebook for news and political content, but to connect with people and discover new opportunities, hobbies and interests. The company also noted that the number of people using Facebook News in Australia and the US dropped by more than 80 per cent last year.

The changes to the Facebook News feature will not affect Meta's other products and services in those countries. People will still be able to view links to news articles on Facebook. News publishers will still have access to their Facebook accounts and pages where they can post links to their stories and direct people to their websites.

The company also said it will not enter into new commercial deals for traditional news content in these countries and will not offer new Facebook products specifically for news publishers in the future.

Source: Meta