Hello my followers! Big news in the tech world – Facebook is saying goodbye to its News tab and will no longer be paying publishers for news content. The News tab, which launched in 2019 with millions of dollars in content deals, will be removed in April. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced that it will no longer enter new commercial deals for news and will not offer new products specifically for news publishers in the future.

A support page for Facebook News confirms the shutdown of the News tab in the UK, France, and Germany, and states that it will no longer be available in the US and Australia starting in early April. This move marks Facebook’s latest retreat from news, following previous initiatives like Instant Articles.

When Facebook introduced Facebook News in 2019, it aimed to support journalism and strengthen democracy. However, Meta’s focus has now shifted towards the Creator economy, with news making up less than 3% of what users see on their feed. Instead of paying publishers, Meta encourages them to drive traffic to their own websites through products like Reels and ads.

In the US, Facebook ended its licensing deals two years ago, but in Australia, the removal of these deals will impact outlets like Sky News Australia, News Corp, Seven, Nine, and The Guardian. These deals were a result of Australia’s News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code, which led to a power struggle between the government and tech companies like Facebook.