Meta said that the majority of its Facebook users do not use the site to access news content. Credit: Wachiwit/shutterstock.

Meta has announced that it will discontinue the Facebook News tab in user feeds in the US and Australia. 

The move comes as the tech giant has been gradually cutting back on the promotion of its news and political content. Meta previously said news links make up just 3% of users’ feeds.

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Users will still be able to view news story links if posted to their main feeds, but Meta stated that the move was in accordance with user behaviour on its platform. 

“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,” Meta said in a blog post, linking to research it had done in February 2024. 

The discontinuation of its news feed mean that Meta will not enter new deals with news publishers. 

Meta assured news publishers that they would still be able to access any Facebook accounts they have. 

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The recent announcement follows the company’s decision to discontinue Facebook’s news feeds in the UK, France and Germany in September 2023. 

In its social media thematic intelligence report, research and analysis company GlobalData found that social media companies were undergoing scrutiny to prevent the spread of misinformation and harmful material on their platforms. 

Meta has already pledged to expand its third-party group of fact-checkers in light of the 2024 EU elections set to take place in June.