🔗 Share this article

Facebook's parent company, Meta, is running a small-scale trial where users without a paid subscription may be limited to posting just two external web links per month.

The Trial's Parameters

This experiment at present includes a selection of Facebook profiles operating in Professional Mode, which is typically utilized by creators and influencers to earn money from their posts. Although publishers are excluded from this trial, the broader impact could be significant.

"Starting 16 December, certain Facebook profiles without Meta Verified will be limited to sharing two organic posts per month."

A History of Retreat

This move follows Meta's multi-year deliberately retreating from hosting news content. Industry analysts point out that after ending deals to pay publishers and restricting news sharing in Canada, Meta has signaled strongly that news is not a priority.

Media companies already experienced a massive drop in website visitors following a policy change last year to show less news in favor of short-form and engaging video. Although visits were starting to rebound in 2024, it remained down by approximately half compared to the previous year.

Driving Verified Sign-ups

This latest trial is understood to be a wider effort to encourage users to sign up for Meta Verified. This paid tier costs from £9.99 to nearly £400 monthly and offers extra features like a verified badge and enhanced security.

• Meta's spokesperson stated: "This is a small experiment to see if the ability to publish an increased volume of posts with links provides extra benefit for paying users."
• Some experts suggest this shift towards monetization may be linked to Meta's costly investments in other areas, like the virtual reality and artificial intelligence.

Could News Benefit Elsewhere?

Interestingly that in January, Meta announced a shift towards a more personalized approach for news and politics. Later reports indicated this could have resulted in more news content reappearing in feeds for some users.

As one instance, visitors referred by Facebook to certain newspaper websites was said to increase significantly in the early months of this year.

In the end, this trial underscores the continuing struggle between giant tech networks seeking fresh income sources and news organizations that depend upon them for traffic and audience reach.