Facebook Testing Link-Posting Limit for Professional Accounts and Pages

Meta is experimenting with a new limit on the number of links users can post on Facebook, unless they subscribe to a paid Meta Verified plan. Over the past week, several users have noticed this test, which explicitly affects link posting. Social media strategist Matt Navarra noted that users in the test group can post only two links unless they pay for Meta Verified, which costs $14.99 per month.

In a screenshot shared by Navarra, users can still post affiliate links, comments, and links to Meta platform posts, such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Meta confirmed the test to TechCrunch and explained that it affects users in professional mode and on Facebook Pages. Professional mode lets users convert their personal profile to a creator profile, making their content eligible for discovery by a broader audience.

“This is a limited test to understand whether the ability to publish an increased volume of posts with links adds additional value for Meta Verified subscribers,” a Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch.

This move could impact creators and brands that use Facebook to post links from their blogs or other platforms to reach a larger audience. Meta explained that the test is part of an effort to explore how it can add more value to Meta Verified subscribers. The company emphasised that publishers are not included in this test and added that users can still post links in comments without being affected by the limit.

In its Q3 transparency report, Meta revealed that more than 98% of views in the U.S. news feed come from posts that don’t include any links. Although it’s unclear whether this statistic influenced the company’s decision to test link limits, the report indicated that only 1.9% of views came from posts containing links, with the majority coming from pages users follow. Links shared by friends and groups were minimal.

The same report also noted that YouTube, TikTok, and GoFundMe were the most common domains linked in posts. With this new test, creators and brands will be forced to post content from other Meta platforms if they reach the link-posting limit, or they will have to stop posting links entirely unless they subscribe to Meta Verified.

As AI continues to dominate the web, the debate over the link-based internet rages on. AI-driven summaries and searches have negatively impacted the publishing industry, and platforms like X (formerly Twitter) have experimented with demoting linked posts to encourage native content creation.