Washington [US], December 19: Facebook is testing a mechanism to charge users for sharing web links, a move that could deal another blow to news organizations and publishers.
Meta, the company that owns Facebook , confirmed that this is a limited trial. Accordingly, Facebook accounts that are not registered with Meta Verified are only allowed to share a maximum of two external links per month.
The trial is currently only being applied to a small group of pages and personal accounts in professional mode, a format often used by content creators to monetize, according to The Guardian on December 19.
According to Meta , the Meta Verified plan starts at £9.99 per month (approximately 350,000 VND), allowing users to share more links while also receiving benefits such as verification badges, account support, and enhanced security.
Although news organizations are not included in the trial, the move has raised concerns in the publishing industry because it could limit users' ability to freely share journalistic content.
Previously, publishers suffered significant traffic losses after Meta in 2023 reduced its priority on news content, shifting the focus to video and short, viral content. While traffic from Facebook showed signs of recovery in 2025, some statistics suggest that traffic in 2024 will still be down by about 50% compared to the previous period.
In screenshots shared by users, Facebook announced that starting December 16th, some accounts without Meta Verified will have their number of posts containing links limited, and encouraged users to sign up for a paid plan to "share more links and receive additional benefits".
Analysts believe this is the next step in Meta's strategy to gradually withdraw from the news sector. David Buttle, founder of the UK-based consulting firm DJB Strategies, commented that ending payments to publishers and completely blocking news links in Canada shows that news is no longer a strategic priority for Meta.
According to him, the new experiment reflects a shift from free distribution to monetization through reach, as Meta seeks to maximize revenue from traditional platforms while simultaneously allocating resources to artificial intelligence (AI) after costly failures in the Metaverse .
A Meta spokesperson confirmed that this was merely a test to assess whether the ability to post more links would add value for Meta Verified users.
Since the beginning of this year, Meta has announced it will adopt a more "personalized" approach to political content, allowing users to actively choose how much exposure they receive. Analysis by Press Gazette and Similarweb shows that this move has helped news content regain more visibility.
Among them, Express (owned by Reach) is one of the clear beneficiaries, with traffic from social media increasing by 26% in a year.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
