Neowin®

Meta announced that it will close the News tab for Facebook in the US and Australia in early April 2024, after previously closing down the tab in a number of European countries in 2023.

Meta announced that it will shut down Facebook News in the UK, France and Germany later this year, as News currently makes up less than 3% of the global content users see in their Facebook feeds.

Threatening to stop sharing news in the U.S. to protest a publisher payment plan, Meta Policy Communications Director Andy Stone tweeted Facebook would consider removing news from its platform.

After blocking Australian users from accessing news for a week, Facebook has finally agreed to unblock news in the country after a discussion with the Australian government to make changes to the law.

Facebook will now block users and publishers in Australia from sharing and viewing Australian and international content. Elsewhere, sharing content from Australian publishers is also prohibited.

Facebook News is now available on the social media service's mobile app in the UK following its test launch in the U.S. Facebook also unveiled new partner publishers for the new feature.

Facebook News will launch in the U.K. in January 2021. The aim of the program is allow publishers to reach a wider audience coupled with a wide variety of advertisement and subscription offers.

Facebook is testing allowing users who have subscribed to its partner publishers to link their accounts to their subscriptions with those organizations, making it quicker to access paywalled content.

Facebook has announced plans to bring its News service to the U.K, Germany, France, India, and Brazil within the next 12 months. It said it will pay publishers of news that it curates.

Ahead of the U.S. elections scheduled later this year, Facebook has introduced new limitations for publishers that are linked to political entities, including exclusion from the News tab.

News is Facebook's move to sustain quality journalism, provide a variety of news, and strengthen democracy. It has been built with help from journalists, publishers, and news organizations.