Facebook now testing a new tab for news called Facebook News

Facebook News Tab

Facebook now testing a new tab for news called Facebook News. The new Facebook news tab is starting to roll out in the United States. The social media giant testing this new home for news in its mobile app. At initial stage, it will be released to a few hundred thousand users in the United States.


Mark Zuckerberg has long found himself under pressure by publishers for using their news content without paying for it. This is part of a broader push to address criticism that Facebook has enabled the spread of fake news while also growing an ad business that is stolen market share from publishers.


Now, the social media giant is going to do just that enter the news tab a dedicated place for news in the Facebook app. This tab will offer stories from a mix of publications including headlines from the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed and Business Insider.


Facebook will start to test a news tab in the US a team of journalists will curate a select number of today's stories, plus there will be sections featuring articles on business, entertainment, health, sports, and science and tech, and also your subscriptions section. And to enable people to link to the content that users are already paying for.


Among others, we want to make sure that in the news tab we have as wide of a breadth of content as possible some stories that will be chosen by a team of journalists to catch you up on the day's news, while others will be based on what you read, share and follow.


Now Facebook's partners at launch will include the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, New York Post, BuzzFeed, and Business Insider.

Among others now Facebook is reportedly paying some of its partners as much as 3 million dollars a year for access to those stories and a Facebook users then click on a next article from participating publications that have a paywall. Then those Facebook users will be asked to subscribe to Facebook's head of news partnerships.


The company launching this in the US to start now, but they want to do something like this across the rest of the world as well.


Facebook will pay some publishers well into the millions of dollars a year for their work. It's a remarkable turnaround for Zuckerberg, who has long ignored calls from news executives like Rupert Murdoch that digital Giants should pay for access to journalism.


Facebook's choice to now elevate reporting comes at a time when the sprawling social network has been sharply criticized for its decisions on disinformation and speech which critics worry could have an outsized effect on the 2020 US presidential election.


So, you won't take down lies or you will take down lies in a hearing in Washington.


Facebook said in a blog post,

“People want and benefit from personalized experiences on Facebook, but we know there is reporting that transcends individual experience. We want to support both.”

"More control over the stories they see, and the ability to explore a wider range of their news interests, directly within the Facebook app. We want to do something like this across the world as well."

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to discuss this the new tab on stage with News Corporation CEO Robert Thompson at an event in New York City.



Earlier this week, Zuckerberg was grilled over Facebook's policy not to fact-check political ads when asked by Alexandria Ocasio Cortez if she too could run a fake Facebook ad. He did say was that it's not up to big tech companies to police political lies. Facebook has so far stayed out of the debate over fact in fiction.


When it comes to politics and it's news, the tab is another way the company is letting the news media and the citizens of the democracy work together to decipher what's true and what's false. One uses deeply reported and well sourced. It gives people information they can rely on. When it's not, we lose an essential tool for making good decisions.


Facebook said in a statement now some local news rooms that Facebook hasn't contacted say they're worried about being left behind. Now Facebook responding to that concern by saying it intends to include more publishers in the future.



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