Facebook announced back in January this year that it would start displaying more local news in the News Feed. This meant that users would likely see more stories from their local newspaper or TV station. The change was limited to the United States initially and Facebook did say at that time that it would introduce it globally as well. The company confirmed today that its local news focus is now being expanded to markets across the globe.
“Local news helps us understand the issues that matter in our communities and affect our lives,” said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg when the company first announced this change. It did that in a bid to promote less content from global publishers in response to mounting criticism that the platform was becoming too political.
Facebook has confirmed today that it’s now expanding its focus on local news to all countries and languages. Users across the globe will now see more news on Facebook from local sources which cover their current city and other cities that they might care about.
The social network has also promised to continue its work to prioritize high-quality news in News Feed, including news from sources that are widely trusted.
The announcement comes amid troubled times for Facebook which is now under investigation by the FTC for the infamous data privacy scandal that resulted in the profile information of more than 50 million users being harvested through an app.
Filed in . Read more about Facebook. Source: newsroom.fb