Pay to Post: Facebook Tests Charging Users for Sharing Links

Meta is conducting a limited test on Facebook where users without a paid Meta Verified subscription are restricted to sharing only two external web links per month, a move that could significantly impact news publishers and content creators who rely on free sharing.

The trial, which currently excludes official news organizations but targets pages and profiles using “Professional Mode,” is part of a broader effort to push users toward the paid subscription service, which costs between $13 and nearly $510 monthly.

This comes after Meta’s 2023 decision to deprioritize news content already caused a dramatic 50% drop in Facebook traffic to news sites in 2024, a decline that had only recently begun to recover.

Analysts interpret the test as a further step in Meta’s strategic withdrawal from free news distribution and a pivot toward monetizing its platforms more directly.