Rationale for Facebook’s removal of embedded link URLs from the rendered DOM

Ascertain the rationale behind Facebook’s design change that removed embedded link URLs from the rendered Document Object Model (DOM) of posts and external links, which prevents browser extensions such as the Trustnet extension from programmatically accessing these URLs without additional user interaction.

Background

The Trustnet browser extension relies on reading URLs of posts and embedded links directly from the rendered DOM to fetch and display credibility assessments in situ. On Facebook, the DOM no longer exposes these URLs unless triggered by specific user actions (such as hover), which inhibits the extension’s ability to function without user intervention.

The authors note that earlier versions of Facebook’s DOM included these URLs, enabling the extension to work as designed, but a subsequent change removed them. The underlying reasoning for Facebook’s modification is not disclosed, creating uncertainty that impacts maintainability and cross-platform compatibility of client-side moderation tools.