What happens when small brands don't spend on digital ads? Nothing Happening is the worst possible outcome.
Matthew Inman posted about this https://twitter.com/Oatmeal/status/923250055540219904
As an aside, this also reflects on the honesty of their ad campaign about supporting small business. If they really cared about small business they wouldn't make them pay to reach the audience they created on their platform.
Anyway paying FB's mafia style extortion probably isn't the solution.