1 March, 2024

Facebook To Abandon News Content In Australia

Meta has confirmed that it will not enter negotiations to extend a deal to pay Australian media companies for news that appears on Facebook.

The well-hidden Facebook News tab will be officially axed in Australia and the US this April Facebook said.

The three-year deal between Facebook and Google and about 30 of Australia’s largest media companies – including Nine, News Corp and Seven West Media – is estimated to be worth north of $200m each year.

The federal government had been seeking assurances from Facebook, Google and – due to its rising prominence – TikTok to enter fresh talks to fund public interest journalism.

The News Media Bargaining Code came into law three years ago to compel Google and Facebook to negotiate with publishers to pay for their content.

Meta and Google dominate Australia’s circa $14bn online advertising market, with Google alone estimated to rake in north of $8bn each year.

In a blog post, Meta said the move is part of “an ongoing effort to better align our investments to our products and services people value the most” and follows the axing of the Facebook News tabs in the UK, France and Germany last year.

The blog post added: “While we’ll be deprecating Facebook News in these countries, this announcement does not impact the terms under our existing Facebook News agreements with publishers in Australia, France and Germany. These deals have already expired in the US and the UK.

“Additionally, to ensure that we continue to invest in products and services that drive user engagement, we will not enter into new commercial deals for traditional news content in these countries and will not offer new Facebook products specifically for news publishers in the future.”

WILL USERS CARE?

Meta said that the number of people using Facebook News in Australia and the US has dropped by more than 80 per cent last year.

Last September, the AFR reported that web traffic from Facebook to publishers had dropped by 50 per cent in 2023.

AFR parent company Nine is one of the main beneficiaries of news content deals. Nine chief executive Mike Sneesby said Meta’s decision “does not recognise the significant and increasing value of Nine’s journalism, unique content and brands to its platforms”.

He added: “Regardless of the Meta announcement today, the value created on their platform from the use of Nine’s IP is both unquestionable and growing and we strongly believe Meta should negotiate in good faith around the fair compensation for that value exchange.

“We will continue to robustly advocate that these deals are in the national interest and the arguments that led to the code in the first place remain as strong as ever.”

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Meta’s flight away from news comes as potentially costly regulatory headwinds intensify across the world.

In recent years, Facebook has changed its algorithm to give less prominence to news and a greater focus on users’ individual posts and short video content. Meta said news only accounts for 3 per cent of the content people see in their Facebook feed.

This shift has come as regulators sharpen their axes to pressure Facebook and Google to pay for the news shared on their platforms.

Last August, Facebook blocked posts from Canadian news sites after its government asked the company to pay for journalism. At the time the move was contentious because Canadian users were unable to access vital information about extreme bushfires on Facebook.

In the wake of Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code, the European Union launched a public consultation about whether Google and Facebook should pay for journalism, and there has also been a similar push in the UK.

Although Meta’s latest announcement to stop funding news will strike a short-term blow to the coffers of Australia’s largest publishers, Facebook’s value to them as a source of web traffic has been evaporating in recent years.

The question is will Google follow suit?

’s global push away from news.

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