Greenville library pays $50 to post links on Facebook

Meta is charging some government and nonprofit Facebook pages to share links, despite promising those accounts would be exempt.

Daniel Starks, communications manager for Greenville, Texas, received a notice that the city library page could add links to only two posts per month. The city of approximately 35,000 residents operates nearly a dozen such pages. Starks stated that more than half of the city's communication relies on directing residents to website information. To avoid the $50 monthly fee for additional links, he instructed staff to place URLs in comments instead of the main post body.

Starks described the change as a problem for an official entity trying to share important information. He said, "When you have an official governmental entity that is trying to get out in some instances very, very, important information, and we're being paywalled by Facebook all because we're trying to post a link, that's a problem." The library page is identified as a government building and was previously verified by Meta.

Nonprofits report similar restrictions. Bethany English, co-president of the East Side Pawject in Indianapolis, could not add a website link to an event post last week because the two-link limit was reached. An "expert" plan for 20 links costs $150 per month. Her group, which has just under 1,000 followers, uses the page to help people find pet food pantries. English is considering asking board members to post links from personal profiles, which remain exempt from the restrictions.

Meta has tested paid linking for nearly a year, first through Meta Verified and now within its Meta One subscription plans. The $49.99 tier allows eight links per month, while the $149.99 tier allows 20. Jeff Bannister, marketing manager at SparkPoint in North Carolina, called the $50 fee for eight links "crazy." He noted that much of his county still uses the platform, making it difficult to depend less on Facebook.

Confusion persists regarding the rules, as Meta's help center does not specify that the link restriction is a test. David Diskin, president of California Freethought Day, was told of the limit days before an annual event in Sacramento. He was quoted prices ranging from $40 to $399 per month depending on link volume. The restriction was lifted this week without explanation. Diskin stated, "It wasn't until after our big fundraiser had passed that they fixed the problem."

A Meta spokesperson said the company is testing whether link sharing should be part of Meta One. In an update on October 23, the spokesperson explained that pages must list "nonprofit" in the category section for Meta's systems to recognize them. It is unclear why organizations using Meta's fundraising tools or stating their status elsewhere are not identified.