In 2020 Meta announced the arrival of Facebook News (not yet named) in France. Finally had to wait 2 more years, but that’s it, tab dedicated to current news is finally ready in France. Starting today, a small select group of users can explore this new section of their social network, which will be available in the United States at the end of 2019, followed by the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia. Meta states that all French users should be able to take advantage of it by May 2022.
Two tabs in total make up this new section. Firstly “like the 8 p.m. television news”, explains Jesper Doub, director of news media partnerships for Europe at Meta. Indeed, this is a classic news feed that offers: all the important information of the day. As such, there are several media that have signed a partnership with Facebook. This tab is the same for all users, unlike the second tab, which is personalized to each person’s interests.
Meta launched Facebook News today
All articles on Facebook News will be selected by journalists from Media Services, a subsidiary of AFP. Fabrice Frie, CEO of AFP, said he is proud of this partnership with Meta. “recognition of the experience and quality of work of our subsidiary specializing in optional editorial content”. Note that it will not It is not possible to read the posts inside Facebook. All news will only appear with the title, cover and the name of the media that wrote it.
To fulfill its passion of providing sourced and reliable news, Meta has signed numerous partnerships with several French media in addition to AFP. These include national and regional newspapers, as well as daily newspapers or magazines. Some names have already been announced, for example Liberation, Le Figaro, Les Echos Le Parisien-Today in France, Le Journal du dimanche, Nice-Matin, La Voix du Nord, BFM-TV — RMC, Capital, Current Woman, L’Équipe, L’Express, Here or even Newspapers of the Ebra group (Le Progrès, L’Alsace, etc.).
Facebook wants to restore its image tainted by fake news
It’s purely hypothetical greed. “Besides the classic Facebook News Feed, Facebook News is where we only provide information from verified sources”, says Jesper Doub. Even Meta plans to pass on to expand the offering other agreements in the coming months and years. “The discussions are ongoing and other partners will definitely join the list”The head of Meta’s partnerships with news media in France and Southern Europe confirmed Mathieu Fritsch.
Mark Zuckerberg’s group is a “great opportunity to expand their audience” For media partners, the purpose of this section could be something else entirely, to help them reach new audiences and grow their subscriber portfolio. fixed on a regular basis mass dissemination of fake news and disinformationEspecially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the advent of vaccines, Facebook could see this as an opportunity to show off credentials and promote sourced news.
