Meta Now Wants Money for Sharing Links on Facebook: Government and Non-Profit Pages in Trouble

Until now there was no fixed limit on sharing links on Facebook pages, but Meta is now restricting the facility for government institutions and non-profit organisations. Under the trial system, some pages are being allowed only two link posts a month. To share more links, they will have to take a paid subscription, the company has said.

As a result, institutions that use Facebook to inform the public about services, activities and urgent information are having to pay extra money. For organisations whose main channel of public communication is their Facebook page, the limit has created new pressure.

The Facebook page of the public library in Greenville, a city in the US state of Texas, recently showed a notification that its monthly link-sharing limit had run out. It said the opportunity to add links to two posts in the month had already been used. To share more links, a 'Meta One' subscription of at least 50 dollars a month would be required.

Greenville's communications manager Daniel Starks said the city authority uses website links to convey information about services and important announcements to citizens. Fearing the same restriction would reach the pages of the city's other departments, he has instructed staff to stop putting links in regular posts and to add links in the comment section instead. That immediate workaround is now what many pages are relying on.

The Indianapolis non-profit East Side Project has run into the same problem. The organisation runs various animal food supply programmes. Its Facebook page, with around a thousand followers, publishes food collection locations, how to donate and how to volunteer.

But with the monthly limit exhausted, the organisation's vice president Bethany English could not include a link to their own website while promoting an event. She was told to take a 150-dollar subscription to get the chance to share 20 links a month. She said it is difficult for a small non-profit to spend that money just for sharing links.

In Meta's subscription plans, the entry-level package at 14.99 dollars a month includes no extra link-sharing benefit on Facebook. The 49.99-dollar package allows eight links a month and the 149.99-dollar package allows 20 links. The 499.99-dollar package has no fixed limit on link sharing. In short, more links now mean more cost — that is the structure being trialled.

A Meta spokesperson said the company is testing whether the link-sharing facility on Facebook can be brought under subscription. The system will be changed based on user feedback and the results of the test. However, the company said government and non-profit pages were not supposed to be included in this trial.

On October 23, Meta further said that to be identified as a non-profit organisation, a Facebook page must mention 'nonprofit' on the page. In other words, even where an exemption may be available, many organisations now need to update their page identity to qualify for it.

There is, however, a lack of clarity over how the restriction is being enforced. Some pages can share links in the comment section instead of posts, while for others that option has also been limited by the platform. The complaint, therefore, is that the same rule is not working the same way for every page.

In this situation, institutions dependent on Facebook for disseminating information are also considering using alternative channels. All eyes are now on whether Meta makes the system permanent after the trial, and how far the promised exemption for government and non-profit pages actually holds in practice.