Social media giant Facebook has said it will launch news
feature in the UK from 2021, after it did the same in the US in 2019, AFP
reported on Tuesday.

The Mark Zuckerberg-owned firm will pay publishers for the
content and plans to expand the service worldwide in time.

“With Facebook News, we will pay publishers for content
that is not already on the platform, help drive new audiences, and bring
publishers greater monetisation opportunities,” the firm said, as quoted
by AFP.

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So far, the website has struck deals with publications like
Guardian, Economist, The Independent and The Mirror, covering the spectrum of
digital, broadsheet, tabloid, and magazines journalism. It has also taken on
board local publications such as London Evening Standard, Manchester Evening
News, and Scotsman.

Also read: UK to set up watchdog regulating Facebook, Google

Lifestyle magazines such as Cosmopolitan, GQ, Vogue and
Tatler have also signed up, while there is a video partnership with Channel 4
News, AFP wrote.

Facebook’s director of news partnership Jesper Daub has said
that the firm is in talks with France and Germany too for extending its ‘news’
service in the European continent.

“We will continue to work with publishers in countries
where market conditions and regulatory environments invite this kind of
investment and innovation,” he said.

The news feature by the website comes at a point when the
traditional media has been facing its lowest ebb in decades in terms of
revenue, with hundreds of publications facing closure across the world, as the
social media sites like Facebook emerge as the main purveyors of news to millions.