Yes, Meta removed Facebook News—but the original headline is now partly historical and oversimplifies the payment decision. Meta announced on February 29, 2024, that the dedicated Facebook News tab would be removed in the United States and Australia in early April 2024, after it had been phased out in the United Kingdom, France and Germany in December 2023. Meta also said it would stop entering new commercial deals for traditional news content in those markets. That did not mean an immediate worldwide end to every payment to every publisher, nor did it eliminate ordinary news links everywhere.
What Meta actually removed
Facebook News was a dedicated tab in Facebook’s bookmarks area that curated articles from participating publishers. It was not the same thing as every news link posted to Facebook.
- Facebook News tab: Removed in the United States and Australia in early April 2024, and in the United Kingdom, France and Germany in early December 2023.
- Ordinary news links: In the five markets above, publishers could generally continue posting links on their Facebook Pages and users could still encounter those links in ordinary Facebook surfaces.
- News availability: A separate question is whether Meta allows users in a country to view or share news at all. Canada’s policy was substantially stricter.
- Commercial deals: Meta’s announcement concerned new and existing agreements tied to traditional news content and the Facebook News strategy, not every financial relationship between Meta and a publisher.
Meta’s U.S. and Australian announcement is at Meta’s newsroom; its European announcement is at Meta’s Europe update.
Where and when Facebook News disappeared
| Market | Facebook News status | Ordinary news availability |
|---|---|---|
| United States | Removed in early April 2024 | News links could still appear under the announced policy |
| Australia | Removed in early April 2024 | News links could still appear under the announced policy |
| United Kingdom | Removed in early December 2023 | Publisher Pages and links could remain available |
| France | Removed in early December 2023 | Publisher Pages and links could remain available |
| Germany | Removed in early December 2023 | Publisher Pages and links could remain available |
| Canada | News availability was blocked rather than merely tabbed off | Meta said news content would no longer be available on Facebook and Instagram to Canadian users |
Meta announced the European phase-out on September 5, 2023, and the U.S.–Australia phase-out on February 29, 2024. Its separate Canadian notice is available at Meta’s Canada update.
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Did Meta stop paying news publishers?
The precise answer is: Meta stopped entering new commercial deals for traditional news content in the affected countries and allowed existing agreements to run until their contractual expiration.
Meta said U.S. and U.K. deals had already expired by the February 2024 announcement. Agreements in Australia, France and Germany were to be honored under their existing terms until they expired. “Stop paying publishers” therefore compresses a contract timetable into a single event.
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That decision should not be confused with:
- advertising revenue a publisher earns independently on its own website;
- payments or commercial arrangements involving other Meta products;
- advertising bought by a publisher to reach Facebook users; or
- future negotiations over other uses of publisher material, including artificial-intelligence products.
Meta said publishers could continue sending readers from Facebook to their own sites and keep the revenue generated there. That describes the economics of an outbound visit; it does not guarantee that referral volume stayed constant or that the publisher received a licensing fee from Meta.
Why Meta backed away
Meta said news represented less than 3% of what people worldwide saw in Facebook feeds and that people primarily used Facebook to connect with others and discover interests, rather than consume news and political content. The 3% figure is Meta’s own characterization, not an independent universal measurement. The company said it wanted to prioritize products with stronger engagement, including short-form video.
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Associated Press coverage of the announcement reported that use of the News tab in the United States and Australia had fallen by more than 80% during 2023. That figure refers to those markets and that year, not to all Facebook news activity worldwide. See Associated Press coverage.
Regulation was an important backdrop
Governments have tried to make dominant platforms compensate news organizations for the value of journalism, but the legal mechanisms and outcomes differ by country.
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Australia
Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code created pressure for platforms to negotiate with publishers. Meta briefly blocked Australian news in 2021 before commercial arrangements were reached. The 2024 product withdrawal occurred against that history; it was not simply a technical tab redesign. Meta’s 2021 account is at this announcement.
Canada
Canada’s Online News Act prompted Meta to remove news availability from Facebook and Instagram for Canadian users in 2023. This is a harder-line outcome than removing a curated tab: Canadian users could not ordinarily view or share news content on those platforms. In May 2026, the Canadian government said Meta had shown interest in possible agreements concerning news used in Meta’s AI products and potentially participation in the Online News Act framework, subject to an exemption and legal clarity. That statement does not show that Facebook News returned or that ordinary publisher payments resumed. The government discussion is documented at Canadian Heritage.
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Europe and France
European copyright and neighboring-rights rules created additional negotiating obligations. In July 2026, France’s competition authority ordered Meta to negotiate in good faith with press publishers and agencies in a neighboring-rights dispute. That is a separate regulatory action, not evidence that Facebook News was restored. See the French Competition Authority decision.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the change means for publishers
The effect depends on which outcome is being measured; “publisher impact” is not one number.
- Licensing income: Payments under Facebook News or related content agreements can end when a contract expires and is not renewed.
- Referral traffic: A publisher may still receive clicks from Facebook links, but the volume can change when a dedicated discovery surface disappears.
- Audience discovery: Fewer incidental encounters can affect brand awareness even when Pages and links remain technically available.
- Subscriptions and memberships: The key question is whether social referrals convert into durable, first-party relationships.
- Advertising: Buying Facebook ads is a distribution expense, not a substitute for a content-licensing payment.
Meta has argued that publishers receive substantial economic benefit from distribution and referral traffic, citing research commissioned from NERA in its explanation of the relationship and the underlying report. Publishers and regulators have argued that platforms also benefit from journalism through audience attention, data and advertising ecosystems. Australian parliamentary material records those competing concerns and evidence about visibility effects in Canada at the Australian Parliament. Neither side’s argument, by itself, establishes a universal effect on every publisher’s revenue.
What Facebook users should expect
- In the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, the dedicated News tab is unavailable.
- In those markets, ordinary publisher Pages and article links may still appear, subject to Facebook’s normal policies.
- In Canada, users should not assume that a publisher’s Facebook Page makes ordinary news-link viewing or sharing available.
- Looking for the missing tab in bookmarks is not normally a troubleshooting fix; its absence reflects a product decision.
Readers who want reliable access can use publisher websites and apps, email newsletters, RSS readers, search and news aggregators, public broadcasters, and official emergency-information channels.
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- Track Facebook referrals separately from direct, search and email traffic so the loss of a discovery surface is measurable.
- Build consent-based first-party channels such as newsletters, memberships, subscriptions and apps instead of relying on one platform.
- Use Facebook Pages, Reels and advertising only where the resulting reach or conversions justify the cost.
- Review contracts for expiration dates, renewal terms, exclusivity, territorial scope and rights covering AI uses of content.
- Plan country-specific distribution rules, with Canada treated differently from the five markets where only the News tab was removed.
The current bottom line
As of August 18, 2026, Meta has removed Facebook News in the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, France and Germany and retreated from new traditional-news commercial deals there. It did not announce a universal ban on news links, and it did not say every publisher payment ended immediately. Canada remains distinct because Meta blocked news availability rather than merely removing a tab. The durable change is strategic: Meta no longer treats a dedicated news product and direct funding of traditional publisher content as priorities in those markets.
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