Explainer: Monetization Risks

Because more views and engagement tend to yield bigger payouts, monetization can incentivize the dissemination of sensationalized and inauthentic content. This includes content obtained illegally through copyright infringement, and content irresponsibly created through Generative AI.

It can also incentivize the use of inauthentic distribution strategies, including the use and development of fake accounts and software automating content sourcing, editing and distribution.

All of this, of course, means greater risk for creating and amplifying disinformation.

But the financial incentives presented by monetization programs can also lead to other illegal activities, including impersonation and account hacking, child exploitation, fund embezzlement or tax evasion.

A platform’s decisions about monetization can also lead to directly channeling funds to actors involved with inauthentic activity. This can help subsidize the expansion, internationalization and increased automation of their activities.

Platforms’ decisions around monetization may also result in payments to political actors, terrorist entities or sanctioned entities.

Advertisers can see their brand damaged through association with harmful content and publishers.

Creators and publishers can similarly face damage to their brand if their advertising requirements are not taken into consideration and they become associated with ads or advertising entities that are detrimental to their brands.

By mediating access to content, platforms are diverting an ever greater share of global digital ad revenue away from publishers. Platforms currently redistribute a small percentage of that revenue – but they do so at their sole discretion and on their own terms. For media publishers and creators to be able to sustain quality content production, it’s essential that they are compensated fairly for the content they create and contribute.

Media publishers and creators face heightened income precarity when their revenue depends on platform monetization decisions. This is because monetization decisions — including moves to demonetize an account or restrict a bank account — rely heavily on automated processes, which regularly make mistakes. Platforms offer limited and often slow recourse for actors who’ve been subject to mistakes, and there is no compensation for revenue lost.

Monetization is also an important driver of copyright and trademark violations, as well as widespread use of Generative AI. This creates an additional strain on the viability of media and creators, who not only see their work stolen but also monetized by others at their expense.