Meta Will End Facebook News Service in Europe’s Biggest Markets

An increasing number of countries seem to view Facebook and Google as piggy banks for funding dying legacy media. Meta has seen where the winds are blowing and trying to get ahead of the issue by pivoting to what their platforms were originally designed for (connecting with friends and family for Facebook, and presumably thirst traps for Instagram).

It really is the case that platforms like Facebook have contributed to the decline of legacy media, but not how proponents of link taxes believe. It is not necessarily because new media is somehow unfairly exploiting legacy media, but rather that human attention is finite, and new media has won an increasing share of it over old media. Facebook and Instagram users will continue using those platforms even if the news disappears off those platforms. As some have noted, it could even actually make Facebook a more pleasant product. And as long as Facebook/Instagram captures the same amount of attention, that's attention that's not being captured by legacy media.

Uh-oh bad news. This might increase popularity of FB.