Meta Link Fees Reach Government Pages Despite Exemption Pledge

Residents in Greenville, Texas, a city of about 35,000, now must look elsewhere for routine city information after the municipal library's Facebook page ran out of its free monthly link allowance. Daniel Starks, the city's communications manager, said more than half of the city's communication involves directing residents to its website. After a notice limiting the library page to two links per month, Starks told staff to move URLs into comments and posted a graphic explaining the change to followers.

The library's page lists itself as a government building and had been verified by Meta previously. Posting additional links would require a Meta One subscription starting at $50 per month. "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," Starks said.

Nonprofits report the same restriction. Bethany English, co-president of East Side Pawject in Indianapolis, was blocked last week from adding her website link to a post about an event after the group used its two monthly links. Her organization's page has just under 1,000 followers and is used to help people locate pet food pantries, donate, and volunteer. An expert plan allowing 20 links monthly would cost $150. English is weighing dedicated Facebook events or having board members post links from personal profiles, which are exempt.

Meta has tested paid linking for nearly a year, first under Meta Verified and now as a benefit of its AI-focused Meta One plans. The $14.99 tier includes no additional Facebook link sharing. The $49.99 tier allows eight links monthly, the $149.99 tier allows 20, and the $499.99 tier is unlimited. Meta previously stated that government and nonprofit pages would not be affected by the change.

David Diskin, president of California Freethought Day, learned of the limit earlier in October, days before the group's annual civic engagement event in Sacramento. He was quoted $40 monthly for eight links, $119 for 20, or $399 for unlimited. The restriction was lifted this week. "It wasn't until after our big fundraiser had passed that they fixed the problem," he said.

A Meta spokesperson said the company has been testing whether link sharing belongs in the Meta One subscription. In an October 23, 2026 update, the spokesperson said pages must list nonprofit in the category section of their Facebook page for Meta's systems to recognize them as such. It remains unclear why organizations that state their status elsewhere are not identified.