Meta has begun a test restricting the number of links that creators and businesses can post per month on Facebook.
A subset of Facebook pages plus user profiles on Professional Mode have been chosen for the experiment, which will mean they can only post two links organically each calendar month.
However Techcrunch reported news publishers are not currently included in the experiment.
This means publishers will not be restricted on the number of links they post themselves, but they may see a traffic impact if other users are unable to share their content.
It comes less than a year after Facebook traffic to news publishers began to grow again after a drastic downturn, as Meta began to “take a more personalised approach to political content”.
Affected users were told they can still share unlimited affiliate links, links in comments, and links to other Meta platforms (Instagram and Whatsapp).
This will see the continuation of the “link in comments” trend that is now a common sight on most social media feeds that prefer to keep people on their platforms (for example rather than sending them elsewhere – often meaning they suppress the visibility of posts containing links.
Facebook wants people to pay for Meta Verified, its subscription service for creators and businesses which costs from £9.99 to almost £400 per month per profile depending on the tier.
A Meta spokesperson said: “This is a limited test to understand whether the ability to publish an increased volume of posts with links add additional value for Meta Verified subscribers.”
Some users were told this week: “Starting December 16, certain Facebook profiles without Meta Verified, including yours, will be limited to sharing links in two organic posts per month.
“Subscribe to Meta Verified to share more links on Facebook, plus get a verified badge and additional benefits to help protect your brand.”
There are already some perks around hyperlinks in Meta Verified: the second tier, which costs $49.99 (£37.21) per month, onwards allows users to include links in reels (from two to six per month). All tiers can add images to links “to help boost engagement”.
Social media expert Matt Navarra told BBC News of the experiment: “For creators it reinforces a pretty brutal reality that Facebook is no longer a reliable traffic engine and Meta is increasingly nudging it away from people trying to use it as one.”
Press Gazette has contacted Meta for more information.
The post Facebook tests charging creators and businesses to post more than two links per month appeared first on Press Gazette.
