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Content creators and publishers have long expressed concerns regarding Meta’s influence over link visibility on Facebook, given Mark Zuckerberg’s association with the phenomenon of enshittification, as per MetalInjection.
Recent developments suggest these concerns are intensifying, as the company is experimenting with a new system that effectively restricts link-sharing behind a paywall for certain creators.
Under this experimental protocol, the volume of links a creator can share monthly on Facebook is directly linked to their subscription status to Meta Verified.
According to a screenshot shared by social media consultant Matt Navarra and reported by Engadget, some creators have received notifications from Meta indicating that non-paying users may be limited to sharing only two links per month unless they subscribe to Meta Verified.
Certain Facebook profiles without Meta Verified, including yours, will be limited to sharing links in 2 organic posts per month.
This shift implies that Facebook is less inclined to accommodate unpaid creators, even to the extent of removing prior informal courtesies before imposing restrictions.
… limited test to understand whether the ability to publish an increased volume of posts with links adds additional value for Meta Verified subscribers.
A Meta spokesperson has confirmed the ongoing experiment to Engadget, while Navarra discussed the potential of being charged for link posts during an interview with the BBC.
If you’re a creator or a business, I think the message is essentially if Facebook is a part of your growth or traffic strategy, that access now has a price tag attached to it. And that’s new in its explicitness, even if it’s been the direction of travel for a while.
The current test impacts an unspecified subset of creators and pages utilizing Facebook’s “professional mode,” with Meta asserting that publishers are not yet affected.
However, given the tendency for experimental features to become permanent, this policy change could herald a broader move toward a “pay-to-play” distribution model, requiring creators to subscribe to preserve previously standard functionalities.
