Meta has entered into a series of paid data-licensing agreements with several major news organisations, a move aimed at transforming its Meta AI assistant into a real-time news hub across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and the standalone Meta AI app.
The company announced the partnerships on Friday, revealing that its AI chatbot will now be able to pull in breaking updates, global news, entertainment stories and live developments from a variety of outlets — and serve them directly to users in conversational responses.
Under the revamped system, Meta AI will not only summarise ongoing events but also display direct links to original articles, offering publishers new traffic pipelines and visibility.
Meta confirmed that its latest crop of partners includes CNN, Fox News, Fox Sports, Le Monde Group, The Daily Caller, USA Today, The Washington Examiner, and outlets under the People Inc. media group.
The company says more publishers will be added over time as Meta pushes to differentiate Meta AI in a competitive global chatbot market.
The development marks a significant shift from Meta’s earlier stance. Over the past few years, the company pulled back sharply from news-centric features:
Facebook’s “News” tab was shut down in 2024.
Meta ended payments to U.S. publishers in 2022.
Now, those payments are returning — but with a very different purpose: powering Meta’s AI ecosystem with authenticated, up-to-date content.
The company says the goal is to make Meta AI “more responsive, accurate, and balanced”, particularly during fast-moving events where many AI systems struggle to stay reliable.
The pivot comes as Meta tries to regain footing in the AI race, especially following criticism surrounding its Llama 4 model earlier this year, which some users argued under-performed despite Meta’s claims.
The company is betting that real-time, verifiable news access — something many AI systems lack — will give Meta AI a competitive edge.
Meta AI is currently accessible in more than 200 countries, integrated seamlessly across Meta’s major apps and via the dedicated Meta AI app released earlier this year.
The update means users can now ask Meta AI about global events and get richer, more trustworthy responses backed by licensed journalism rather than generic scraped data.
