Meta has begun testing charges for link sharing on Facebook, affecting government and nonprofit pages despite company claims the experiment would not impact these entities. Daniel Starks, communications manager for Greenville, Texas, a city of about 35,000, reported that his city's library page was restricted to just two links per month. Sharing additional links now requires a Meta One subscription costing $50 or more monthly.
Starks oversees nearly a dozen city Facebook pages and has instructed staff to stop posting links altogether, instead directing followers to URLs in comments. Bethany English, co-president of the East Side Pawject nonprofit in Indianapolis, also encountered the restriction while trying to post about a pet food pantry event. She was offered an "expert" plan allowing 20 links monthly for $150, which she says is difficult for her small organization to justify.
Both Starks and English report that their pages are properly identified as government and nonprofit respectively, having undergone Meta's verification processes. A Meta spokesperson stated the company has been testing whether link sharing should be part of the Meta One subscription but did not explain why nonprofits are seeing restrictions. The changes have left government communicators and small nonprofit leaders frustrated and searching for workarounds as they reconsider how to use the platform for essential public information.
Source: Engadget · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing