Meta Closes Facebook News Service in the US and Australia Starting April 2024, Here's the Reason

Liputan6.com, Jakarta – Meta announced that it will close the Facebook News service in the United States (US) and Australia starting April 2024. The number of users that continues to decline is the reason behind the closure of Facebook News.

Quoted from the official Meta website, Saturday (2/3/2024), Facebook's parent company revealed that the number of people accessing Facebook News in the US and Australia will decline by more than 80% by the end of 2023.

Facebook News currently only covers 3% of the number of users accessing Facebook worldwide. Previously, Facebook News would be discontinued in the UK, France and Germany in 2023.

However, the closure of Facebook News will not have an impact on Meta products and services in these countries.

Meta explained that Facebook users will still be able to access news via links shared by online media accounts.

“Media Companies will continue to have access to their accounts and Facebook Pages. Online media accounts will also still be able to post news to Facebook posts and share articles with general users via posted links,” wrote Meta.

Media companies can also still take advantage of other Facebook products, such as Reels and Facebook's advertising system which reaches a wider range of users. Media companies even still get 100% of the revenue earned from Facebook.

Although Meta will discontinue Facebook News services in the US and Australia, this announcement does not impact the terms of Facebook News' agreements with online media in several other countries.

“The closure of Facebook News does not affect Meta's commitment to connecting people with trusted information and reducing the spread of fake news on their platform,” the company emphasized.

Meta partners with third-party fact-checkers, certified through accreditation bodies such as the International Fact-Checking Network, who review and rate viral misinformation on Meta's social media apps.