Meta, the parent company of Facebook, announced on Tuesday, September 5, that it is removing the ‘Facebook News’ feature in the United Kingdom (UK), France, and Germany.

Facebook users will still have access to news content through links shared by news publishers on their Facebook accounts and pages. News publishers will retain the ability to post news articles, share links, and engage with their audience as they did previously.

Meta has affirmed its commitment to honour all existing agreements with news publishers in the UK, France, and Germany until their expiration dates. This commitment ensures that publishers’ expectations and obligations under these agreements will be met.

This move continues the chain of events following Australia’s decision to implement the News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code (NMBC), a law that requires Google and Facebook to pay local news publishers for news content that is made available or linked on their platforms, which took effect in March 2021.

The NMBC defines news content broadly, to include “content that reports, investigates or explains current events, or commentary or analysis on current events”.

According to a report published by the Australian government following a review of the NMBC, “Over 30 commercial agreements had been struck, agreements that were highly unlikely to have been made without the Code and on the evidence available to the review, at least some of these agreements have enabled news businesses to, in particular, employ additional journalists and make other valuable investments to assist their operations.”

Since the NMBC, other developed countries such as in Europe, Canada and the U.S have also began taking steps to addressing the payment of news content publishers. In the U.S, the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) is a bill that has been introduced in the United States Congress that is still pending before the full senate. It’s aim is to create a safe harbour for news publishers to collectively negotiate with tech platforms like Google and Facebook for payments for the use of their content.

Canada is in the process of implementing a similar law to the NMBC, The Online News Act, which received royal assent on June 22, and will come into effect on December 19. In August, in response to the decision, Meta has blocked Canadian access to links and stories from news publishers.

Andy Stone, Meta policy communications director, expressed on X, formerly known as Twitter, “As we’ve always said, the law is based on a fundamentally flawed premise. And, regrettably, the only way we can reasonably comply is to end news availability in Canada.”