Facebook scraps in-video links to other sites

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Facebook last year introduced something called "Instant Articles", which offered news organizations the chance to create interactive content that is much simpler and faster to read on Facebook via a mobile device. Many media firms know millions people get there online news from Facebook, and the social media giant took that move to make it even easier to access news articles.
 
That was last year, let us talk of this year and what Facebook has recently done.

Just from BBC news desk is that Facebook has withdrawn the ability for video creators to embed links into their clips. The call to action [CTA] feature had been popular with broadcasters, who used it as a way to steer users to their own sites. This change in policy was made earlier this month without warning.

Experts say the decision is another illustration of the power that Facebook now has over how the public reads and watches the news.

According to a recent study, 28% of people in the UK use Facebook as a news source at least once a week, with that figure rising to 41% for the under-35s.



The BBC noticed the CTA facility was no longer available on video upload pages on 9 June, but was only able to get confirmation this was not a bug 12 days later.

"After considering a number of factors, we have removed the option to add a CTA to the end of native video," 

said a spokeswoman for the social network.

"We're exploring other ways for partners to achieve similar objectives, and will have an update in the coming months."

Video-makers can still add a link to the text that appears at the top or bottom of native video posts. However, this does not appear if the video is being watched in full-screen mode, and will therefore be missed if a user is allowing one clip to auto-play after another.

A "click for more" link does still appear superimposed over videos viewed on PCs. However, it now makes the clips appear larger rather than directing users to third-party websites, as had been the case before.


Source: BBC News