Meta, Facebook's parent company, will no longer feature the Facebook News tab on its platform in the UK, France and Germany. According to the company, news makes up less than 3% of the content users seek on the forum. Meta commits to honouring all obligations with news publishers in the jurisdictions but indicated that these are not likely to be renewed. The policy does not prevent the publishing of news items on Newsfeed.

The new development is foreshadowed by Meta's debacle with Canada over its new media laws, which require that the company compensate news publishers for publication on its website. In the end, Meta no longer publishes news in the country. Facebook insists that the new European policy only emerged as a quest to fulfil market demands. 

Why does it matter?

Meta's stance in Canada and the three European countries illustrates the growing power of social media companies. The ongoing legal dispute between Canada and Meta has shown that user engagement does not suffer from a lack of news. This further allows Meta to avoid complying with the new regulations regarding paying publishers.