By: Rusty Brooks
Facebook just announced plans to pay content creators more than $1 billion by the end of next year through new bonus programs designed to keep creatives plugged into its app ecosystem. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg first announced the new funding to “reward creators for great content” on his Facebook page.
The company will offer the first new bonuses to creators making videos on Facebook with in-stream ads enabled. Facebook is also expanding bonuses through its Stars system, which invites viewers to send streamers tips in exchange for fan perks. Creators making videos or livestreaming games will be eligible for monthly bonuses based on how many viewers send them payments via Stars through October, Tech Crunch reported.
This latest announcement appears to be an effort to combat TikTok, which pays their top content creators.
Snapchat hands out $1 million each day to the most popular videos in its short-form video product, Spotlight. YouTube has its own $100 million fund for YouTube Shorts, the company’s own TikTok clone.
Under Facebook’s new program, which is invitation-only for now, eligible creators will see alerts encouraging them to join the effort when they open the app. Facebook said it planned to create a dedicated place for creators to track their bonuses on Instagram and Facebook by the end of the year, Ny Times explained.
This announcement comes on the heels of major news about Facebook, which has shook the world of libertarian and free speech advocates, when White House spokesperson Jen Psaki implied that the government is working with the social media giant, to censor posts by Facebook users who are vaccine skeptics. Psaki claims there are 12 main content providers who post vaccine skepticism. This chilling admission of government using social media to censor citizens is sending shockwaves throughout the independent media and free speech activists.
Facebook also defended themselves after the Biden administration accused them of killing people by not censoring all posts related to alleged misinformation about the COVID vaccine. It would appear the social media giant wants to re position itself as an entertaining app like TikTok instead of a free speech outlet for activists and heated political talk.
This is not the first time that Facebook has given money to creators in exchange for using its products. The company previously paid TikTok influencers and YouTubers to use features of Instagram such as IGTV, a long-form video feature similar to YouTube, and Reels, a feature that functions similarly to TikTok., Ny Times reported.
