Facebook news to launch in Germany this spring, partners with major media outlets

As per details, the social media giant will roll out its news platform after it struck a deal with the country’s top publishers, including leading national outlets Der Spiegel, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Die Zeit.

The platform launched within the US in 2019 and within the UK in January and Germany is the latest country to come to an agreement with the social platform on Facebook News. It’s also in active negotiations with publishers in France to extend the news offering to users on the continent.

It will gives users access to top news stories and a personalized feed within the app.

The announcement comes shortly after a heated discussion with the Australian government, when Facebook briefly pulled its news page from users in the country in response to new legislation.

Earlier in February, the Australian parliament passed the 'News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code' which made it compulsory for global digital platforms to pay media companies for showing Australian news content.

Facebook and Google were the main targets of the legislation and both fiercely opposed in return for agreeing to pay local media companies.

However, the law easily passed after tech firms reached agreements to pay country's news organizations to avoide being subjected to tough mandatory bargaining rules under the regulation.

Earlier, Facebook also pledged to invest $1 billion into news media over the next three years, matching Google’s $1 billion commitment to publishers.