• by Ray Schultz , March 4, 2024

Meta claimed last week that only 3% of what users see in their Facebook feed is news. But Robert Thomson, Chief Executive of News Corp . doesn’t believe it.  

The Meta statement was made as part of an announcement that Facebook was shutting down its news tab in the Australia and the U.S. 

Thompson, speaking at  the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in San Francisco called that decision "disappointing” as it pertains to Australia. 

“It’s disappointing when you look at Facebook suggesting for example, that 3% of usage relates to news. Well, that’s obviously a fiction, a preposterous figure,”  Thompson said. 

Thompson continued, “I mean how much discussion is there around news? You have the core news and then I can tell you 100% of the contemporary factual information on Facebook is news. And so those are the numbers that really, Facebook should be focused on as well as being focused on its responsibility to all Australians.”

At the same time, Meta is “a company that talks about community.” The damage here is not only to the Australian community.   

What happens now that this decision has been made? 

“Well clearly the government has a view, which it's perfectly entitled to. Clearly we have a view which we're perfectly entitled to. And we'll see what happens over the next couple of weeks, but I suspect that we haven't seen the final frame of that movie.” 

Meta made the announcement last week, saying, “People will still be able to view news on Facebook in feed in these countries, and publishers will continue to have access to their Facebook accounts and Pages, where they can post their news article links and content. 

But the company also made it clear that it will not renew agreements it has with publishers in Australia, France and Germany when they expire.