All US News Being Removed From Facebook?
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Facebook has been undergoing changes and facing pushback from numerous sources. New laws could cause the social media platform to make changes that contribute to the company’s revenue stream. Congress is attempting to pass a bill that would give greater negotiation power to news organizations regarding the money they make from articles shared on Facebook.
Congress is attempting to pass a bill known as Journalism Competition and Preservation act, or JCPA. The bill’s goal is to give news publishers a greater bargaining chip over companies like Facebook when negotiating ad revenue. If this bill goes through, Facebook has said it will consider removing all news from the platform.
Facebook has already removed the word news from what was previously known as News Feed on the platform. As the company rebranded, it decided to drop the word news and simply name the central feature, Feed. This change happened earlier this year in February.
The social media platform has already included a feature that allows users to select precisely what is shown in their Feed. While some Facebook users primarily use the platform to keep up with friends and family, others use the platform as a source for local and world news. The company didn’t want to confuse users into thinking that they would just be seeing news with the word news in the name of the central feature.
The latest change that may be coming to the platform may include removing news altogether. Facebook and news outlets seem at odds and share different opinions regarding how much the company profits from sharing news stories. Facebook and news outlets seem to be in a sort of he-said-she-said rift.
Facebook claims to only make a small amount of revenue from sharing news stories on its platform. Additionally, the company claims that news companies put stories up on the social media platform because it benefits the bottom line of the new companies. Facebook has said that if congress were to pass the JCPA bill, they would consider removing all news from the platform.
News companies share different views and tell a different story. During the pandemic, local news stories struggled immensely, while Facebook supposedly made enormous profits from the news stories. Media companies say that the social media giant profits greatly from news stories on the platform. With two completely stories from Facebook and news outlets, it’s hard to determine what is actually the truth and what is a fabrication.
As Facebook has essentially threatened to remove all news from the platform, it is said to prove that they are a threat to democracies worldwide. The dominance of Big Tech is a huge problem that lawmakers are working to stop. Those who favor passing JCPA are looking to prevent Facebook from becoming a de facto news source.
A similar law was passed and put into effect in Australia year. The law led Facebook to remove all news in the country of Australia. After much criticism, the company reversed the decision and worked to make a new deal with the Australian government.
