Facebook is blocking links to Tsu.co, a new social media platform that promises to share a percentage of its advertising revenue to users posting contents. Tsu.com has already four million users since its inception in 2013.
Facebook users cannot share any post that contains Tsu’s web address on their newsfeed. They can’t also leave an Instagram comment or send a message containing Tsu’s URL on Facebook Messenger. Some readers cannot share news stories about Tsu on their Facebook newsfeed.
Facebook retroactively blocked or deleted around 10 million mentions and or links to Tsu from any of its social media platforms such as Instagram and Messenger.
Facebook threatened bu Tsu.co business model
Tsu founder Sebastian Sobczak claimed that Facebook was threatened by his business model, which was the primary reason for the block. Sobczak said his business model was “dangerous to them.”
Sobscal explained that Tsu is sharing a percentage of its advertising revenue to reward users for helping in building the social network. It also serves as payment for the content they are posting on the platform.
Technology observers view Tsu’s strategy as similar to a multi-level marketing since it offers incentives to users for sharing links to the site to increase page views and attract new users. According to them, there is a high probability that many will take advantage of the system and use the platform to distribute spam.
Tsu violates Facebook Platform Policy
Facebook spokeswoman Melanie Ensign explained that the social network giant blocked Tsu because it violated its policy.
“We require all websites and apps that integrate with Facebook to follow our Platform Policy. We do not allow developers to incentivize content sharing on our platform because it encourages spammy sharing and creates a bad experience for people on Facebook,” said Ensign.
Separately, a Facebook engineer told Tsu, “Our automated systems flagged your app for producing spam on our Platform. Our investigation found your app is incentivizing people to share content to both Tsu and Facebook concurrently.”
He also encouraged Tsu to comply with Facebook’s policy by removing its ability to post contents automatically on the social network giant’s platform. The Facebook engineer told Tsu, “Let us know when you remove this functionality, and we will lift the restriction.”
In response, Sobczak said, “We would just like to be treated equally and fairly.We maintain we do not violate any of their terms and conditions.” He has no intention to remove’s Tsu’s ability to automatically post contents on Facebook.
The social network giant recently implemented a brief ban on the phrase “everyone will know” because it was mistakenly mixed with the platform’s spam filter.
