Facebook has been working on the creation of a news page on its platform, with the aim of financially supporting high quality and reliable journalism, said its founder Mark Zuckerberg on Monday. Reports are that the social media platform is allegedly rolling out a dedicated Facebook News Tab (now in beta) for interested users.
The head of the most popular social network in the world, with 2.3 billion users, spoke about this project in a video posted on his Facebook profile, in the context of a conversation with Mathias Doepfner, CEO of German media giant Axel Springer.
We want this to highlight high-quality and reliable information – Zuckerberg
According to him, between 10 and 15% of Facebook users would be interested in a space devoted to news.
Zuckerberg said that it would be necessary to select the published information, but he did not give many details about the form that this new tool would have, which he hopes to develop in conjunction with large media groups.
New! Facebook News tab is now available for me in the UK pic.twitter.com/6P7LZGuwOS
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) April 16, 2019
While the proposal is still being outlined, the founder of Facebook also said that this project could financially help media groups struggling with the transition into digital content.
There is a real opportunity in a separate news service to achieve better monetization of its contents through a separate information service – Zuckerberg
He added that “Facebook could have a direct relationship with publishers to make sure that their content is available.”
However, he denied that he wants to turn Facebook into an editor.
We will not have journalists to deal with the news – Zuckerberg
This initiative aims to support financially reliable journalism. The executive also explained that this will help users of the social network to make more informed decisions.
Now that this communication platform is facing new European Union rules it will require to compensate with publishers and creators for the news articles, songs and videos that appear on their website, said Bloomberg.
New! Facebook has a ‘Digital Wallet’ and ‘Admin Panel’ tab showing on iOS in the UK?! pic.twitter.com/LFRONRLONr
— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) April 16, 2019
Facebook is also said to be testing the Digital Wallet and Admin Panel on iOS in the UK.
