First screen, captured 6 days ago.

Facebook Pages require paid subscription to post more than two links per month

What HN thinks

A link-rationing policy prompts HN to relitigate Bluesky's hosting bill, React's sins, and whether zstd offsets genocide.

Platforms are waging war on links
Many see this as the latest step in social media suppressing outbound links to keep users on-platform, with 'link in comments' workarounds now being monetized too.
Maybe it targets spam and clickbait
Some speculate the limit could curb engagement-bait pages, scams and bots, though others note big publishers would just pay.
Own your presence instead
Small businesses and towns should run their own websites or use open protocols like ATProto, ActivityPub or Diaspora, though critics note self-hosting costs and network effects.

Consensus: Most agree Meta's moves are about engagement and revenue, and that relying on Facebook as a primary channel leaves organizations at its mercy, even though it remains heavily used locally and in developing countries.

Recommended in the comments

Bluesky (service): It reportedly doesn't penalize posts linking off-platform and lets users move identities.
Mastodon (product): Cited as cheap and easy to self-host compared to a full ATProto stack.
Diaspora (product): One commenter hosted a pod cheaply for many users with good community support.
Squarespace (service): Suggested as a cheap, quick way for small businesses to have a real website instead of a Facebook page.
Hatching Twitter (book): Recommended as an eye-opening account of Twitter's dysfunctional early management.
Svelte ↗ (library): Offered as a better-designed, truly reactive alternative to React.