On Facebook you no longer see the preview images of the links: what happens?

Many of you will have noticed that on Facebook have completely disappeared link preview images and that when you share a third party links, only one is visible short preview of the shared article without photo or summary. Don’t worry, your Facebook is not crazy. In fact, Mark Zuckerberg and Meta are making some pretty big changes on social.

Let’s find out together.

No more preview images of links on Facebook: the changes in the social network

There is an air of changes on the social network of Zuckerberg and Meta, the famous Facebook. In fact, at the beginning of the week, many users noticed that if they try to share on your profile an article, commonly known as third party links, this appears without image or summary. All other users will be able to see is the title of the article and any name of the newspaper.

This change, however, seems to be valid only when you try to share an article on the your personal profile. On the Facebook page of the newspaper that shared its article, however, theimage appears: however the summary continues to be missing. Also, if the post is re-shared from the header page to your profile, the preview continues to contain the Photo.

Why is all this happening? Very simple: it is just the effect of European Copyright Directive 790/2019 to which, even Facebook, is trying to adapt in its own way.

The European Copyright Directive 790/2019 update copyright rules in Europe in consideration of the development of the fruition of content on the Internet. As you can guess, the modification of Meta on Facebook has been introduced only now because the decree implementing the directive has recently entered into force: precisely Tuesday 14 December 2021.

Now that Facebook has acted, we can only wait for the response froml Guarantor for Communications. In fact, the latter will have to realize, by 12 February 2022, a specific regulation. This regulation will allow to evaluate the economic value of images and summaries that accompany the previews of the links published on the various social networks but also on Google.

Put simply: there is a need to own more precise criteria e concrete in order to establish how much to pay for publication of the aforementioned contents (or part of them). Consequently it will also be possible to understand how much publishers can earn from these shares.

This explains why Meta has decided, right now, to delete third party link preview images and summaries (o short descriptions of the content of the articles).

The Guarantor for Communications and the 2022 regulation

As mentioned earlier, it is now the turn of the Communications Authority. Within 60 days will therefore have to establish the general box within which publishers, tech giants and other companies will be able to negotiate the payment of the rights of the publications. At this point the negotiation between tech giants and publishers begins.

However, the problems do not end there. In fact, if in the 30 days after the start of any type of trading an agreement will not be found, one of the two sides will have the possibility to return from Agcom. The latter, after further 60 days, will be able to establish the fairer compensation.

Meta, however, revealed an interesting element, which will allow us to evaluate how the newspapers are behaving. The company led by Mark Zuckerberg revealed that, in fact, publishers can decide immediately whether to grant to the social network the authorization temporary to publish full previews.

A spokesperson for Meta, in a note sent to the Corriere, stated:

In compliance with the law, we will continue to ensure that control remains in the hands of the content owners who use our platforms. We are also committed to strengthening the solutions we offer, to help the industry meet the needs of an increasingly digital age.

At the moment, therefore, we just have to wait and observe how our social network will change in the coming days. The next appointment regarding the European copyright directiveand is scheduled for February 12, 2022.