In the Facebook offices they have made the final decision to end a function on which they had already set their sights and which now disappears in a general way. With this, the social network closes one of the doors it opened years ago and confirms that it continues to make decisions against the interest of users. Are your days numbered?
Facebook could serve as a case study of how Mark Zuckerberg’s social network rose to the skies and ended up falling as soon as its first years of popularity passed. But the problem is that the network team is not looking for improvement options either. Instead, they focus on other projects and “polish” Facebook with decisions that are not always well received.
Goodbye to the news
In December of last year, Facebook already began to eliminate the news tab that had been available in some European countries. At that moment, however, criticism accumulated over the decision the platform had made. The situation left a window of some hope in sight that it would not have been so strange that, in the end, they thought better of it.
But in the last few hours the social network has published another statement in which it has confirmed that Facebook News is going to disappear from the last markets in which it was available. And this is big, because it is its definitive end in the United States, which means that there is no longer any possibility that this service, or a similar one, will be available again.
Losing valuable content
Facebook News had two positive aspects. For users, it was a convenient way to stay up to date with the latest news published in important media. When it came to combating fake news and the many cases of fake news that circulate on this social network, it was very valuable. For their part, for publishers and media, it was a great opportunity to generate additional income. Not in vain, when the service debuted in 2019, Facebook made some contracts that guaranteed important media outlets, such as the New York Times, the opportunity to pocket millions of dollars.
It is obvious that over the years the service could have been better focused. It was criticized for giving too much importance to certain media and ignoring others, while the social network was also accused of not having managed the launch of the service globally well. In reality, there were important markets where it was not even made available to users.
In any case, as we indicated, we had always trusted that Facebook would channel this service in a more positive way and that it would end up extending it to a greater number of regions. After all, taking into account the many occasions on which the social network has promised to fight against fake news, it was to be imagined that they would make an effort to fill their platform with quality content. However, from what they have mentioned in recent times, right now their main interest is in making more room for video content, especially short videos.
It is clear that Facebook wants to get carried away by the TikTok phenomenon, although it seems that, as usual, the social network is arriving late. At a time when even TikTok is increasing the length of its videos, it is not optimistic that Facebook is turning to content that is already beginning to be burned instead of seeking its own identity.
In any case, Facebook says that the media, portals, newspapers or magazines can continue publishing links with news on their pages to make them known and reach their followers. But it’s so obvious that they shouldn’t even have to remember it. With this, it gives us the feeling that we continue to see that free fall that Facebook is suffering and that seems to have no end. At least, they are not putting in place any means to stop it.
