Facebook shuts down its college students-only social network 'Campus'

After less than two years of its launch, Meta-owned Facebook is shutting down its college students-only social network -- Campus.

Campus users could access a special news feed and join groups, events and chat rooms focused on college life. It also included a directory where users could find and befriend other students on the app, reports The Verge.

"We have decided to end our pilot of Facebook Campus," Facebook spokesperson Leah Luchetti was quoted as saying in a statement emailed to The Verge.

"We learned a lot about the best ways to support college students, and one of the most effective tools to help bring them together is Facebook Groups. We have notified students in the test schools that Campus will no longer be available, and have suggested relevant college Facebook groups for them to join," Luchetti added.

Luchetti mentioned that all profiles, groups, posts, events, and other Campus content would be permanently deleted. Users can download their Campus data before March 10, when the section will become unavailable.

Facebook notified users of the shutdown via an in-app message, the report said.

Launched in September of 2020, Campus was first piloted with 30 US schools, with each one siloed so users could only interact with other students at their school. It was walled off from the main Facebook app, allowing users to have Campus profiles separate from their main Facebook profiles.

Facebook eventually expanded Campus to include 60 colleges and universities, and as TechCrunch noted, the company was announcing plans to add more colleges as recently as January.

--IANS

vc/bg