Meta announces end of support for news in Europe

Meta will “deprecate” News tab on Facebook by December in UK, France and Germany

British media groups face the loss of further revenue as Meta announces the winding up of news content deals with UK and European publishers.

According to Meta this is part of "an ongoing effort to better align our investments to our products and services people value the most." The Facebook News tab will disappear from the bookmarks section of Facebook by December. The company will honour all existing Facebook News agreement, it just won't renew them.

"As a company, we have to focus our time and resources on things people tell us they want to see more of on the platform, including short form video," Meta said in a statement.

"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."

In the same statement, Meta says that News makes up less than 3% of what people around the world see in their Facebook feed.

Despite its belief that its users aren't going to Facebook for news, Meta has said it will continue to allow news articles to be shared and viewed via the Facebook platform.

The announcement has been greeted with disappointment and anger by British media groups because it removes another valuable income stream and traffic generator.

The company removed Instant Articles which was designed to provide users with a faster, more intuitive route to access news content earlier this year.

Also part of the move away from news to focus on the video content which is really driving user engagement, is the fact that Meta will not renew funding for the Community News Project (CNP), which was designed to support local journalism in the UK. This is likely to further damage the regional newspaper industry.

Henry Faure Walker, chief executive of Newsquest Media Group, said that it was "pretty cynical behaviour from Meta — it takes billions of pounds annually from the UK advertising market [and] built its platform in part by free riding the quality content that news publishers provide".

"It's disappointing that Meta is retreating back to their tower, leaving brilliant community journalists out in the cold."

A spokesperson for Reach Plc, which owns the Mirror, Daily Express and Star titles, said in a statement:

"While unsurprising, today's news clearly has broader implications about Meta's commitment to providing a safe space for reliable and trusted information, which should be a serious concern for the industry and society at large."

Owen Meredith, chief executive of the News Media Association, which represents newspapers in the UK, said that the decision "comes as little surprise, considering the news blackouts we have seen Meta enforcing in Canada and Australia".