Meta kills Facebook news in Australia, France and Germany. Here's what that means

Meta will no longer pay for news content in Australia, France and Germany.

"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," Meta said in a statement.

Meta said the decision to wind down the news tab is part of an ongoing effort to better align its investments to its products and services people value the most.

The firm stated that the changes affecting the Facebook News feature will not otherwise impact Meta’s products and services in these countries.

"People will still be able to view links to news articles on Facebook. News publishers will continue to have access to their Facebook accounts and Pages, where they can post links to their stories and direct people to their websites, in the same way any other individual or organization can. News organizations can also still leverage products like Reels and our ads system to reach broader audiences and drive people to their website, where they keep 100 percent of the revenue derived from outbound links on Facebook," Meta clarified.

It also stated that while it is deprecating Facebook News in these countries, this announcement does not impact the terms under its existing Facebook News agreements with publishers in Australia, France and Germany. These deals have already expired in the US and the UK.

The owner of Facebook has oft been at loggerheads with Australia over a requirement for it to pay publishers for news content. The company stated that news makes up less than 3 percent of what people around the world see in their Facebook feed, "and is a small part of the Facebook experience for the vast majority of people."