Meta spokesperson confirmed the news in an email to Gizmodo that it had notified its publishers that the company would stop supporting the service of instant articles by mid-April 2023.
Facebook instant articles were intended to load quickly on mobile phones. When this feature was introduced Meta claimed that it would “load and display 10 times faster than the standard mobile web.”
Also Read : Meta issue warning as Million of Facebook User’s Passwords got Stolen
At that time it was beneficial to Facebook but now that arrangement no longer makes business sense for Facebook.
The spokesperson Meta told Gizmodo “Currently less than 3% of what people around the world see in Facebook’s Feed posts with links to news articles,”
He also added, “As we said earlier this year, as a business it doesn’t make sense to over-invest in areas that don’t align with user preferences.”
This move from Meta shows their intentions and plan of moving away from hard-core news and more into video content.
After the shutdown notification, the publishers now have 6 months to find out an alternative strategy.
