After launching on Tuesday, its generalization of the information wire will be progressive and Facebook News should be available for all users in France by May.
Le Monde with AFP
After the United States at the end of 2019, the United Kingdom in January 2021, Germany in May then Australia in August, Facebook launches in France from Tuesday Facebook News, its info wire reserved for journalistic contents. Increased visibility for the media and symbol facing the disinformation charges that are aimed at the social network, this service will initially be deployed with a small number of French Facebook users. Its generalization will be progressive and Facebook News should be available for all users in France by May, according to Meta, the American group owner of the social network.
“next to Facebook’s classic news thread, Facebook News is the place where information comes only from verified sources”, because produced by real media, explained to the France Presse agency (AFP) Jesper Doub, Director of Partnerships with the topical media for Europe at Meta. The launch of Facebook News in France has been made possible by the signing of a framework agreement with the Alliance for the General Information Press (APIG), announced by Facebook in October.
Several media Available
This agreement plans to remunerate for two years French daily press publishers for the use of their content. Under this agreement, many national or regional daily newspapers are included in Facebook News, among which the Parisian-today in France, Le Figaro, the Journal du Sunday, the Echos, the newspapers of the Ebra group (the progress, the progress, the ‘Alsace, etc.), Nice-morning, or northern voice.
At the same time, Meta has concluded agreements with other media that are also included in Facebook News at its launch, including BFM-TV – RMC, Capital, Current Woman, Team, Express, Liberation or Behold .
“Discussions continue and other partners will surely join the list,” said AFP Mathieu Fritsch, Responsible for Meta partnerships with information media in France and South Europe.
Day news and interest centers
Concretely, Facebook News will be accessible via a new tab in the Facebook app. By clicking on this tab, the user will access a wire of information that will present journalistic content in the form of thumbnails, with the title of the article, an image and the name of the media. No content can be read on the Facebook page itself: these thumbnails will contain links returning to the media site. It will not be possible to read a free paid item.
Facebook News will consist of two sections. One, common to all users, will present most of the news of the day, “like the 20-hour television newspaper, according to Mr. Doub. The other will be personalized according to the interest centers of the user. For the user, Facebook News will be both a guarantee of “quality” and “diversity” in access to information, according to Mr. Fritsch.
For the media, this will be “a great opportunity to expand their audience” by touching different audiences, or even to win new subscribers, he said. Facebook has 40 million monthly users in France.
The launch of Facebook News intervenes, while the social network is regularly accused of being a propagation channel of false information via contents from doubtful sources. “We are convinced that journalism is essential for the good health of our democracies,” said Doub.
The contents contained in the common section to all users will be selected by journalists employed by a subsidiary of AFP, Media Services. This choice is “a recognition of the experience and quality of the work of our subsidiary specialized in the editorial content on demand”, commented on the CEO of AFP, Fabrice Fries, cited in a Meta statement.
Meta remunerates more than 80 media around the world, including AFP, under a content verification program. But the contract signed as part of Facebook News is separate from this agreement.