Meta signs news deals to fuel Meta AI with verified reporting
Meta has signed several commercial agreements with news publishers. These include USA Today, People Inc., CNN, Fox News, The Daily Caller, the Washington Examiner and France’s Le Monde. In connection with the development of AI chatbots, the company requires real-time access to verified news.
Having previously signed a similar contract with Reuters, the company is now expanding its pool of sources. The new agreements provide compensation to publishers for the use of their content. Users receive responses that indicate the source and provide a direct link to the original publication. This increases trust in the information and strengthens Meta’s position as a news aggregator within its platforms.
Partnership with Reuters
In October 2024, Meta signed a multi-year agreement with the international agency Reuters, which allows it to use its materials to generate responses in the Meta AI chatbot. Users in the US gained access to real-time news and events: responses are accompanied by links to the original Reuters publications.
That agreement with a news publisher was the first for Meta in the era of AI development. Before this, the company had gradually moved away from news content in the main Facebook and Instagram feeds due to regulatory pressure, but news is essential for AI services. OpenAI has also signed dozens of agreements with national and international media outlets, and Microsoft has announced payments to publishers for integrating their content into Copilot.
Reuters receives compensation for the use of its content. Meta AI’s chatbot is integrated into Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger search and messaging services, so responses to queries contain summaries and links to the agency’s content.
Meta previously invested tens of millions of dollars in content for the News Tab, but closed it in the US in 2024 and discontinued its publisher payment programme in 2022. Reuters has been working with Meta as a fact-checking partner since 2020, but did not participate in News Tab. Reuters was chosen because of its reputation as an independent and responsive news source.
Expanding the list of partners and topics
Agreements with media outlets cover global news, entertainment, and lifestyle topics. Meta plans to expand the list of partners and issues, as well as add new features for accessing timely information. Meta’s AI chatbot is integrated into Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger search and messaging services. For queries requiring up-to-date news, users receive answers with a link to the source and a reference to the publication.
The company is modernising not only how information is obtained, but also the technologies used to transmit it. In October this year, Meta Platforms announced a partnership with chip technology provider Arm Holdings to power its AI systems. The company’s applications, including Facebook and Instagram, use chip technology for personalisation. The social media giant will use Arm-based data centre platforms to power its AI-based ranking and recommendation systems.
Opportunities for iGaming
For iGaming affiliates and operators, these agreements present a mix of opportunities and risks. On the one hand, integrating licensed news content into Meta’s AI responses provides a chance to gain additional referral traffic and increase user trust when affiliate content is quoted or referenced in reactions.
However, the growing role of AI aggregators is changing the rules of the game: automated responses can reduce the value of traditional reviews and pull organic traffic, thereby increasing competition. Affiliates, therefore, need to update their compliance and age-gating policies and optimise their content for the AI-answer format. Using clear headlines and structured data, and providing links to primary sources, might be helpful. It’s also necessary to diversify traffic channels so as not to depend solely on platforms with AI aggregators.
The risk of automating advertising creatives without built-in restrictions should also be considered, as this may lead to violations of local gambling advertising regulations. Ultimately, benefits are possible if content quality, transparency, and legal compliance are maintained; however, passively waiting for traffic from AI platforms may result in losses.
This article was first published in Russian on 5 December 2025.
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