In this new "News" space, the articles put forward will be selected by a team of professional journalists and by algorithms that will target the interests of Internet users.

Facebook confirmed Tuesday on its platform the creation of a space "News" which will present to its users the main news of the day, with the assistance of a team of experienced journalists.

"Highlight the right items"

The social network will rely on the experience of professional journalists to select relevant and reliable articles. Another part of the content will be chosen by algorithms. These will determine and target the interests of Internet users who frequent the network, according to the "signals" left by the pages consulted, with which they interacted or following their subscriptions.

"Our goal with this 'News' tab is to provide an extremely personalized and thoughtful experience," said AFP Campbell Brown, Head of Partnerships for Facebook Information. "For the 'Top News' section of the tab, we bring together a small team of journalists to make sure we highlight the right articles," she said.

But for all articles in the entire information section, the choice will be largely determined by software, according to her.

"Provide a better press experience"

Facebook, based in California, has launched in recent years a series of initiatives to support or strengthen journalism while the role of social networks in spreading false information or hoaxes is regularly denounced.

Working with news industry to get to Facebook's News Tab right is our goal and focus this year. Still early days. I believe we can provide people on Facebook a better news experience. https://t.co/fo75fllI2k

- Campbell Brown (@campbell_brown) August 9, 2019

"Our goal this year is to focus on having Facebook's 'News' service up to scratch," she wrote previously on Twitter. "We're still in the early stages, but we're getting a very good feedback on the product, and I think we can give Facebook users a better press experience," she said.

Facebook would pay some publishers for a license to use their content. In an interview earlier this year, co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he wanted "to be sure, as far as possible, to finance the highest quality journalism possible".