[News Figures] Meta Vice President of News Business Resigns Ahead of US Presidential Election

Journalist Former CNN Anchor Quits After 6 Years
Joined Due to 'Fake News', Built News Tab
Meta's Priority Shift Ahead of Next Year's Presidential Election

Campbell Brown, Vice President and Head of News Business at Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, announced on the 3rd (local time) that he will be leaving the company. Brown, who was brought in by Facebook after taking responsibility for the spread of fake news during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, is resigning ahead of next year’s U.S. election, which is expected to accelerate Meta’s distancing from news.

Campbell Brown, Vice President and former Head of News Business at Meta Platforms (Photo by Campbell Brown's SNS)

According to CNBC and other outlets on the 3rd (local time), Meta announced that Brown, the executive responsible for partnerships with news organizations, has decided to leave. Brown, a former anchor for NBC News and CNN, stated that he will end his six-year tenure at Facebook and begin a career as a consultant. The team he led will be merged with other teams. However, Brown will maintain a relationship with Meta as an advisor.

Brown’s departure signifies a shift in Meta’s priorities. He joined Facebook in 2017 when the company was heavily criticized for not actively addressing fake news during the U.S. presidential election. Having served as a prime-time anchor at CNN, Facebook entrusted him with the role of establishing partnerships with news organizations. Brown worked extensively to build relationships with executives of global news organizations and played a significant role in how news is consumed on Facebook.

In particular, in 2019, he created a separate News Tab on Facebook to allow users to view articles from news organizations, and in 2021, he doubled the amount of news available in this tab, among other efforts. Brown also implemented mechanisms to filter out false information on Meta’s social networking services (SNS) and established a system enabling prominent writers to create newsletters and connect with readers.

However, recently, as Meta has been trying to withdraw from the news content consumption process, Brown appears to have decided to leave the company. Starting in June, Meta stopped providing news services in Canada, and from December, it will also cease news services in the UK, France, and Germany. Meta explained this as "an effort to focus more investment on other products and services," but analysts suggest it is due to controversies surrounding news licensing fees.

Meta recently stated, "We know that users do not come to Facebook to get news and political content," adding, "They come to connect with others and discover new opportunities, passions, and interests."

The New York Times (NYT) evaluated Brown’s departure as "showing how Meta’s priorities and relationships with news organizations are changing." It also pointed out that "Meta is facing a situation where it does not have a head responsible for news, sports, and entertainment at a critical time ahead of the U.S. election scheduled for next year."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.