From Tuesday, February 15, Meta will launch in France Facebook News, a tab dedicated to news of all kinds and developed with renowned French media. A way to redeem a virginity and an informative righteousness after the multiple accusations of letting circulate, even peddling, fake news.
Facebook News arrives in France on Tuesday // Source: Frandroid
Thing promised, thing due. Facebook had promised to fight against fake news with emphasis on the fact check and by strengthening its offer of reliable information to its users. The first point has been settled for several years with the creation of a structure dedicated to the verification of information in partnership with the main French media (Le Monde, Liberation, AFP, L’Express, France Télévisions, 20 Minutes…) who reviewed and verified the accuracy of thousands of information shared on the platform. The second will be on Tuesday.
As of February 15, Meta launches in France Facebook News, its promised news service ” reliable and relevant“. “As part of Meta’s ongoing commitment to journalism and content creation, this new tab gives people a dedicated space to find the stories that matter most to them, while ensuring that original media content benefits for wider distribution across the country” promises the group of Mark Zuckerberg.
How do I access Facebook News?
The new news space will be grouped together in a tab in the Facebook application. A desktop version is not planned for the moment. The tab will allow you to view a wide range of articles. You will only have to configure your settings to enjoy it. It will take position at the top or bottom of your application (depending on whether you are on Android or iOS), between your profile and notifications.
Source: Meta
Source: Meta
To take advantage of this, it will obviously check that your application is up to date.
What will it look like?
Facebook News will be divided into several spaces. We will obviously find at the heart of the offer and space the latest articles that could interest you and which reflect the information at the moment T (News in the spotlight). Thematic sections (politics, international, economy, sport, entertainment, health, science and technology) will be offered. The Collections are similar to a kind of thematic files on major current topics which are more in-depth there in articles and videos (elections, sporting event, anniversary, etc.).
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You will be able to enjoy a personalization of the display according to what you read, share or follow. The idea is not only to comfort you, but also to be able to offer you the opportunity to discover other media. For this, control tools will be used to choose the articles, subjects and media that you want to appear.
Who are the media partners?
More than a hundred potential media are announced, through a collaboration with APIG, the Alliance of General Information Press. We will already find at the launch articles from theFigaro, 20 minutes, the Parisian-Today in France, La Croix, Les Echos, Le Journal du Dimanche, or the local daily and weekly press (La Dépêche du Midi, La Provence, Le Dauphiné Libéré, Le Progrès, La Voix du Nord, Nice-Matin, Sud Ouest, Le Télégramme, etc.).Also present are BFMTV and RMC (their website), specialized media such as L’Equipe, Capital, Geo, Gala, Voie, Femme Actuelle, etc.
The sports section on Facebook News // Source: Meta
Meta wants to offer a plurality of content “trustworthy and reliable“, who have “an impact on the lives of users and those around them“. In short, stop the fake news shared for verified content. Other partners should gradually be added to the offer in the coming weeks.
Who chooses the content?
If Facebook News hopes to become a source of information as widely used as Google News, the recipe chosen is however not quite the same. When Google News takes up articles published everywhere on the net, Facebook wants to highlight the selection made. The curation of the information and articles brought together is carried out by an independent team of experienced journalists. They must select the most relevant content. A partnership with Media Services, the AFP subsidiary specializing in this area, has also been set up. This will ensure that Facebook News offers a “fair overview of information published by publishers and broadcasters”.
Facebook News will also display real-time news digests during news highlights. All this does not exempt from a certain subjectivity in the choice of an article pushed by such or such partner. But if the curators will be there for a general editing of the content, the choice in the topical themes pushed forward, the users have their say on the partners they want to see appear in their feed. Admittedly, this is once again akin to a source of information that corresponds to one’s affinities, political or editorial sensibility. But the informative base is supposed to be much better than the often biased selection, based on no journalistic work, of your neighbor, brother-in-law, colleague or anyone else like you.
Who can see them?
If you see articles and want to share them, it will be done as usual on Facebook for any content. They’ll appear in your News Feed or on Pages. You can also share them in private messaging with your friends.
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