Meta Platforms Inc. plans to stop promoting news content for people in three major European countries, the latest sign that the social network giant is trying to leave the industry behind.
The company will “deprecate” the news tab—a Facebook feature to prominently display news material—for users in the UK, Germany and France. “We know that people don’t come to Facebook for news and political content—they come to connect with people and discover new opportunities, passions and interests,” the company wrote in an unsigned blog post on Tuesday.
In recent years, Facebook has turned from news media as it dramatically shifted its business to focus on virtual reality and competing with the rising popularity of TikTok. Meta has also clashed with publishers about how they’re compensated and is blocking news material in Canada after the government passed a law requiring tech companies to pay news providers.
In the Tuesday blog post, Meta said its existing agreements with publishers in the UK, Germany and France would be honored “until they expire.”
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Read the full article here
