Facebook News Is Expanding to Germany

Facebook is bringing its news curation offering to Germany this spring—after it struck a deal with the country's top publishers, including leading national outlets Der Spiegel, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Die Zeit. Top line Germany is the latest country to come to an agreement with the social platform on Facebook News, which gives users access to top news stories and a personalized feed within the app. The announcement comes shortly after a heated back-and-forth with the Australian government, when Facebook briefly pulled its news page from users in the country in response to new regulations that would force the social platform to pay publishers more than it deemed fair for the news content that it features. The ban lasted about a week, until Facebook and Australian legislators came to an agreement on Feb. 23 allowing the platform to negotiate commercial deals with publishers individually, outside of the country's news media bargaining code. Between the lines Individual commercial deals are what brought Facebook News to Germany, too. In a blog post published today, the platform said it has agreements with dozens of publishers in the country, which represent more than 100 editorial brands. It's planning to announce more agreements before the offering goes live in May. Facebook first launched a revamped version of its news tab in the U.S. last summer, following with a U.K. rollout in January. It's also in active negotiations with publishers in France to extend the news offering to users on the continent. Bottom line Last week, Facebook also pledged to invest $1 billion into news media over the next three years—matching Google's $1 billion commitment to publishers (which it announced last fall). Both tech giants have faced criticism for the impact their services have had on news media: Facebook, because of the way misinformation and conspiracy theories have spread on its platform, and both companies for the way they've dominated in the digital ad space at the expense of journalism outlets. In a somewhat ironic turn of events, Google and Facebook had become two of journalism's biggest funders even before the recent billion-dollar pledges. In addition to the monetary commitments, both have launched initiatives like Facebook's journalism project to find ways to bring revenue back to local news media—the very thing that they helped to disrupt. Read Next: ‘It Could Backfire’: Ramifications of Facebook’s News Blackout and Google’s Dealmaking

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Facebook News Is Expanding to Germany in May, Partnering With Major Newspapers

The platform recently pledged to invest $1 billion in news over the next three years

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Kathryn Lundstrom

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Kathryn Lundstrom