By our entertainment editors
Sep 24, 2023 at 2:25 PM Update: an hour ago
British newspapers are concerned about the end of Facebook News, a timeline with which the social medium brings attention to articles from news media. In a letter to parent company Meta, umbrella organization News Media Association calls that decision a “threat to democracy”.
Meta announced earlier this month that it was abolishing the news function in Europe, where Facebook News is only available in France, Germany and the United Kingdom. The group of British newspapers writes in their letter, which was published by the business newspaper Financial Times it has been realized that this decision is also financially disadvantageous for news media.
“When editorially vetted news is not available on the platforms where users seek it, society suffers,” writes the News Media Association, which includes The Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph in The Daily Mirror be a member of.
“These deliberate interventions pose an urgent threat to democracy by cutting off reliable news, both financially for the media industry and in a practical sense for the public who rely on your platform for information,” quotes Financial Times from the letter.
The letter is addressed to former minister Nick Clegg, who now works as CEO at Meta. The newspapers also sent their appeal to the current British Ministers for Culture and Technology.
According to Meta, the news function is used too little
Meta wrote in early September that only a small portion of Facebook users use the platform to read news. The social media company therefore thinks it can better invest its money in “products and services that people find most valuable”.
Meta also pointed out that newspapers still have the option to highlight news through short videos, the so-called Reels, and their own accounts.
Earlier, News Media Association chief executive Owen Meredith also criticized Meta’s decision to stop putting money into a project aimed at strengthening local journalism in the UK.
Traditional news media and Meta are often at odds. Newspaper publishers believe that Meta pays too little for their articles that appear on Facebook, for example. In Canada, Facebook’s parent company decided to remove all news from its platforms out of dissatisfaction with a new law that requires Meta to pay for news.
2023-09-24 12:25:17
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