Since this format was based on Facebook's own platform and used its native resources, it made news articles load faster and feature a uniform look and feel. Now that they are removing support for this service, Facebook links will be simply redirected to the publisher's website instead. If publishers have not optimized their platforms for speed and dynamic UI, the browsing experience will now appear slow and clunky.
Facebook introduced this feature in 2015 when there was still a strong focus on written content. Back then, they also used to pay publishers in the US money to include their articles on the Facebook News tab. However, the company claims that despite these efforts, only 3% of the current feed features links to such news articles. Therefore, they don't feel the need to continue putting resources into such endeavours.
This is why they have decided to discontinue both strategies and instead focus on video-based content through their Reels section. They will also be shutting down their Bulletin newsletter platform in the first half of 2023. This marks a clear departure from their previous business model and gives users an indication of where social media is heading in general. As more and more customers now prefer to consume video content rather than read news on mobiles.
Publishers will now have to take the next six months to assess their content strategy and optimize their own websites to improve the user experience. This should not be shocking news for most, as even Google has decided on a similar strategy, where they will stop prioritizing news articles that follow their AMP format regarding search rankings.