This story was reported in partnership with Uncloseted Media, an LGBTQ-focused investigative news outlet. On September 14, far-right influencer Chaya Raichik, known online as Libs of Tiktok, attacked a Washington state high school on Facebook for displaying a Pride flag. A few weeks before, on August 27, neo-Nazi webcomic artist StoneToss posted a strip that used Tim Curry’s death to mock transgender suicide rates.
And earlier this month, right-wing political commentator Benny Johnson shared claims that Democrats will “transition your kids while you’re at work” and “hand out gas cards to illegal aliens.” Meta pays these creators for making posts like these. In 2024, the tech giant unveiled a new invite-only program called Facebook Content Monetization, designed to streamline earnings for creators. Many creators celebrated the move, with some reporting a major increase in their earnings through the program.
However, that program has recently come under scrutiny. In August, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that Meta invited accounts promoting white supremacist and neo-Nazi ideologies. And after reviewing Meta’s monetization data, Uncloseted Media identified 29 accounts with histories of anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric that have been invited to the program.
These include the three aforementioned accounts as well as podcaster Candace Owens, who has blamed gay men for child abuse in the Catholic church, and Turning Point USA, which has been connected to an assault on a queer Arizona State University professor. Meta did not respond to Uncloseted Media and The 19th’s requests for an interview or for comment. With the midterm elections looming, some of the accounts Meta pays through the program have been spreading political misinformation.
In the first week of October, for example, Benny Johnson made 14 separate Facebook posts connecting the Democratic Party to election fraud. Courtney Radsch, director of the Center for Media and Digital Governance at Open Markets Institute, said that promoting hateful rhetoric and misinformation like this is especially dangerous during an election season where the increasingly authoritarian Trump administration, which Meta has courted since its inauguration, has openly discussed attempts to interfere. Meta launched its Facebook Content Monetization program to incentivize more creators to post on Facebook, which has faced an aging user base and competition from newer apps.
Those incentives can be substantial — within the program’s first year, content creators who accepted Meta’s invitation to join reported huge increases in their payouts, with some calling it their most lucrative platform. One creator told The Hollywood Reporter that she consistently earned $20,000 to $30,000 per month, while another said his monthly earnings often hit six figures. While most accounts aren’t big enough to rake in that amount of money, Meta also motivates smaller accounts to join.
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