Facebook News launches: why personalised news could be the future and why that could be a problem

Facebook News is launching this afternoon in the UK, as several major news publishers have signed deals with Facebook to provide content. The launch comes as Facebook remains under ongoing scrutiny of social networks’ influence on news and use of personal data. Unsurprisingly, Facebook News utilises user data to suggest personalised news stories, selected for each reader based on their interests, as decided by Facebook’s algorithm.

In a world of track-and-trace and GDPR, people are becoming more and more aware of how their data is captured and stored, so firms are often caught in a tricky balancing act of retrieving data, while providing reassurance regarding its safety to their customers. Facebook will have to ensure that users data is protected and utilised in a way to build trust and acceptance.

Personalised news provision also raises issues. Facebook has already been criticised for its role in amplifying political news – from the US election to the Capitol riot, nearly a third of Facebook’s top link posts were from right-wing media. Targeted news stories are likely to increase the prevalence of echo chambers reinforcing beliefs and reducing the impartiality of news media.

Karl Weaver, Future Strategy Club member and former CEO of UK Data at the Publicis Groupe, comments on Facebook News and data security:

“Data is one of the most precious commodities that firms can access. Data can generate incredible commercial insights, and the launch of Facebook News will provide news publishers a much needed boost. Although this highlights the rise of personalised content in the future, it poses risks around echo chambers and radicalisation.

Consumer trust needs to remain for Facebook News to work. There is often an assumption that consumers will happily exchange information with a brand, but the nature and relationship in that exchange is becoming more important. People are becoming more and more aware of data security, and with tech giants under increasing scrutiny of the way their data is used, brands such as Facebook will need to think more about how they build trust in this space.”