Video Creators Again Discover Facebook Has Shorted Them on Ad Revenue ⇥ theverge.com

Ashley Carman, the Verge:

And he’s not the only one who hasn’t been entirely paid out. The Verge spoke with two other Facebook video creators, all of whom say the company shorted them on cash and ignored their requests for help. The creators had no reason to initially question the amount they were paid since Facebook’s estimated revenue tool almost always mirrored their actual payouts. Usually, they’d be short only a couple hundred dollars. But after their revenue seemed off two months in a row, the creators say they looked into the issue. All three say the problems began in January, around the time Facebook transitioned to its new Pages experience and made updates to how creators can monetize.

[…]

But these creators say Facebook only cares about advertisers, leaving them with no one to turn to when their payments are unexpectedly short. They reached out for help, but the company gave them no feedback on what could be wrong.

After The Verge reached out for comment, however, Facebook said it “resolved a technical issue that prevented a small number of video creators on Facebook from receiving their full in-stream ads payouts.”

Facebook does this sort of thing a lot. It has also apparently been asking writers and journalists to join its newsletter project, but I am not sure I would take that bet. It seems risky to gamble your livelihood on whether Facebook feels like paying you in full.