Facebook shuts down Australian Trending News feature

June 2, 2018 10:31

Social media service Facebook is to shut down its troubled Trending Stories feature next week with the Breaking News label announced in March to replace it along with a new local news service.

Trending stories, which reported popular news topics similar to the Twitter Trends feature, was introduced in 2014 for Australian, US, UK, Indian and Canadian users. It started attracting criticism after accusations in the US of political bias and employees’ claims of toxic and sexist work conditions.

Alex Hardiman, Facebook’s head of news products, announced the service’s June 7 closure this morning citing user disinterest in the feature which saw publishers only getting 1.5% of their Facebook referrals through the service and very poor take up of the service on mobile platforms.

Be a member to keep reading

Join Mumbrella Pro to access the Mumbrella archive and read our premium analysis of everything under the media and marketing umbrella.

Become a member

Paul Wallbank

Paul Wallbank was news editor at Mumbrella between June 2017 and June 2019. Previously he's covered business and technology issues for outlets ranging from The Australian and Sydney Morning Herald to the ABC and Business Spectator.

Topics