AFP subsidiary to curate Facebook news in France

PARIS: An Agence France-Presse subsidiary will select content appearing on Facebook News when it launches in France, the international news agency said on Thursday.
Facebook’s parent company “Meta has chosen Media Services, an AFP subsidiary, to handle the curation of the future project Facebook News,” AFP management said, confirming a report by French trade publication La Lettre A.
Meta confirmed Media Services “had been designated as a curation partner,” but did not disclose details about the launch of Facebook News in France or the value of the deal.
Content curation is the process of sifting through and selecting online content to add to a website.
Media Services has had its professional journalists manage the news appearing on the websites of French telecoms giant Orange and online bank and financial news outlet Boursorama.
Facebook News, which has already launched in the United States, Britain and Germany, allows users to access news on the US social media giant’s platform.
Its launch in France was originally scheduled for January 2022.
Facebook in October signed a framework agreement with French national and regional newspapers to remunerate them for the use of their content on its platform and will see them contribute to Facebook News.
Meta also pays more than 80 media organizations worldwide, including AFP, as part of a content-checking program developed by Facebook, which has been accused of acting as a channel for the spread of fake news.
AFP said the Facebook News deal was separate from the fact-checking program.