Meta Eyes Cutting Funds to News Companies After Reader Drop

Meta is looking into cutting the funds it gives to news organizations, Reuters reported Monday (May 9).

This comes as Meta is noticing that less people have been clicking on news links since former President Donald Trump left office.

The social media giant is reportedly evaluating some of the partnerships that it has formed over the last few years. Meta also recently said it’s slowing down the growth of its workforce, after the recent recording of the most sluggish revenue growth in a decade.

Meta has faced several challenges as of late, including a disagreement with the German antitrust watchdog over its data collection. Meta recently said a German antitrust order curbing its data collection was “clearly flawed” and undercut European data protection regulations.

Read more: Meta Criticizes ‘Clearly Flawed’ German Antitrust Ruling

Meta’s comments came after the German antitrust watchdog had ordered it to quit taking user data without consent. According to the watchdog, Meta had been abusing its market power.

This case was part of a larger, global trend of regulators looking at curbing the amount of power that Big Tech companies have. Meta is also fighting allegations from the U.K. antitrust watchdog, who claimed at Meta breached anticompetitive rules in regards to its Giphy acquisition.

See also: Meta Challenges Order to Kill $315M Deal to Acquire Giphy

The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority said that Giphy, a GIF search engine which Meta was looking to pay hundreds of millions to buy, had been a competitor in the display ad market. Lawyers have been looking into that, and Meta said that there was no evidence that the two companies had competed in the ad market.

Reuters wrote that the issue in the German case stems from whether the watchdog went above its authority by using the antitrust powers to deal with data protection. That all comes as Germany’s Federal Cartel Office said it will be putting in more regulation on Meta, as the company has great significance for competition in general.