Facebook is starting to roll out its dedicated news tab – Facebook News – in the United States this week.
News is a tough nut to crack, but Facebook wants to be the place people get it. The company launched its Facebook News tab in some regions back in October 2019 but is now announcing the feature’s rollout across the US.
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The rollout follows testing for the last few months, as well as many refinements. As TechCrunch reports:
“Since the announcement last fall, Facebook has also added new features, including breaking news alerts, timely news digests (e.g. ‘COVID-19 News’ or ‘Unrest in America’), and targeted notifications. The notifications will appear at the top, and may include alerts of a live video or breaking news.”
https://twitter.com/Facebook/status/1187728402322579457
Facebook News will start appearing within the app’s main menu, for the time being, and should get its own tab as users access the feature more regularly.
Facebook News will go back to a combination of human and algorithm moderation, so it seems Facebook has learned its past lessons. Users won’t be able to comment on News stories in the feed, but they can react to them and share them. Finally, they will be able to hide articles, topics, and specific publishers they don’t want to see on Facebook News.
Publishers appearing in Facebook News have all been vetted by Facebook, and have been approved for the feed. With the expansion, Facebook has also added local news to the mix, as well as video.