August 12, 2026
Paid to make you mad
Facebook is paying controversial creators to produce rage-bait content
Meta’s cash machine is accused of rewarding outrage, and commenters are absolutely fuming
TLDR: ABC found Facebook’s parent company Meta appears to be paying several controversial Australian creators and pages through its content rewards program, including some linked to racist and extremist material. Commenters mostly weren’t shocked — many said outrage is the platform’s whole business model, while others fought over whether the headline overstated it.
The big scandal here isn’t just that Meta’s Facebook money program appears to be paying pages linked to far-right figures, racist abuse, white supremacist talking points, anti-immigration activism, and vaccine misinformation. It’s that the internet’s reaction was basically: wait, isn’t this exactly how Facebook already works? One commenter bluntly summed up the mood: “Ragebait is what FB runs on.” Ouch. That line landed because the article says these pages were earning through Facebook’s invitation-only content payment system, which makes the whole thing feel less like random rule-breaking and more like the platform accidentally — or carelessly — putting a tip jar under outrage.
The comments quickly turned into a mix of fury, cynicism, and media sniping. One popular reaction was that this feels especially grim before elections, with users warning that toxic attention gets rewarded at exactly the worst time. Others argued the headline was a little too dramatic, saying Meta isn’t literally hiring people to post hateful content, but paying them through a broader monetisation scheme. That sparked a classic comments-section split: is this a shocking revelation, or just an ugly but predictable consequence of a system that pays for engagement?
Then came the dark comedy. One person joked, “Can’t they just do it with AI?”, which is both a meme and a grim commentary on how low-effort online sludge now feels fully industrialised. Another commenter dragged ABC for allegedly repackaging work already done by independent journalist Tom Tanuki. So yes, the scandal is Meta paying controversial creators — but the real show is everyone arguing over whether this is evil, obvious, badly framed, or all three at once.
Key Points
- •ABC News Verify found that several controversial Australian Facebook accounts and pages were earning revenue through Meta’s monetisation programs.
- •Hugo Lennon has reportedly been paid through Facebook’s Content Monetization program since September 2025, while The Noticer and March for Australia also joined the program in late 2025.
- •Monica Smit joined Facebook’s monetisation program in September 2025 and appears to have earned Facebook advertising revenue dating back to 2017.
- •Facebook distributed nearly US$3 billion to about 16.2 million monetised accounts in 2025, according to the article.
- •What To Fix executive director Victoire Rio said Meta’s monetisation arrangements create a direct commercial relationship with publishers and raise questions about policy enforcement.