San Francisco: Facebook has allegedly ‘shorted’ some video creators thousands of dollars in ad revenue and according to the affected creators, the social networking giant only cared about the advertisers and left them as their payments were unexpectedly short, The Verge reported.
Facebook reacted to the report that came out late on Wednesday, saying it “resolved a technical issue that prevented a small number of video creators on Facebook from receiving their full in-stream ads payouts”.
“We’re notifying these partners that they’ll receive those remaining in-stream payments during the April payout cycle, and we apologise for any inconvenience,” a company spokesperson was quoted as saying in the report.
Britain Lockhart, one of the affected video creators, said that his income varied, and he typically made between $2,000 and $3,000 per month through Facebook.
“But in 2021 so far, that income has unexpectedly dried up. The January payout was only $931, leaving him thousands of dollars short. In February, it was even lower, coming in at just $664,” the report quoted him as saying.
Facebook’s revenue estimation tool projected that he should have received $3,397 for January and $1,747.52 for February.
When the cheques came in, Lockhart ended up more than $4,000 short.
“It was like a slap in the face. I was looking forward to buying more camera gear to increase my business, buying things that could prolong me working with Facebook and me working with YouTube,” Lockhart was quoted as saying.
He was not the only one who hasn’t been entirely paid out.
The Verge spoke with two other Facebook video creators, and they said that the company shorted them on cash and ignored their requests for help.
Last month, Facebook had said that it has allowed content creators to monetise and earn from all video types, especially the short-form, including testing sticker ads in its popular Stories feature.
The social network said that it has also updated its in-stream ad eligibility so that more video creators can access the programme, opening access to in-stream ads for Live and expanding paid online events and fan subscriptions to more countries.
According to Facebook, from 2019 to 2020, the number of content creators earning the equivalent of $10,000 per month grew 88 per cent and content creators earning $1,000 per month grew 94 per cent.