Explainer: Monetization Risks

Monetizing creators and publishers are incentivized to optimize for views and engagement.

This can fuel the use of inauthentic distribution strategies, including the development and use of fake accounts as well as software automating content sourcing, editing and distribution.

It can also fuel the use of content obtained illegally through copyright infringement, as well as created using Generative AI, often with little to no human oversight.

Besides incentivizing inauthentic activity, and fueling the risk of mis/disinformation, monetization can incentivize impersonation and account hacking to ‘capture’ audiences, as well as contribute to concerns around child exploitation, fund embezzlement and tax evasion.

When actors involved with inauthentic activity are financially rewarded, platforms’ funds can help subsidize their expansion, and finance the increased automation and increased internationalization of their activities.

Platforms have also been found to issue payments to actors engaged in illegal activities, such as terrorist or sanctioned entities, as well as to contribute funds to actors whose financing is typically subject to regulatory oversight, such as political parties, politicians and government agencies.

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

Creators and publishers can face similar 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.