Why is Facebook Blocking Medium Links?

A simple mistake, or is there more to it?

Photo by John Matychuk on Unsplash

If you’re a Medium writer and you’re active on Facebook then you will know that the social media behemoth has been blocking a lot of Medium links lately — identifying them either as “spam” or claiming they contravene Facebook’s “community standards”. Sometimes, the writers who find their posts containing Medium links are blocked cannot post any links at all.

The bottom line is that this is causing pain for writers who use Facebook to promote their Medium pieces to friends, family, colleagues, fellow writers and even total strangers. Promotion and marketing is an important part of making it as a writer in a crowded marketplace — and Facebook is vital to that.

Like it or loathe it, the fact is nearly 4 billion people across the globe are active social media users, and Facebook is the biggest social media platform.

There are pros and cons to all social media platforms when it comes to getting your stories out there. I know people who will swear blind that Instagram (also owned by Facebook) or Twitter is better when it comes to driving traffic to your stories than Facebook, but the fact remains Facebook is ubiquitous and, particularly thanks to a number of Medium-orientated groups on the platform, a great place to get your work seen…