We Trust the Facebook, Meta, Whatever, Right?
August 31, 2026
Facebook is still all the rage among social media users or is it better to say it invokes rage among its user? Australia’s ABC explains why in the article: “Facebook Is Paying Controversial Creators To Produce Rage-Bait Content.” These creators include someone with NEO-Nazi links and an well known Anti-vaxxer. The content by these rage baiting folks is in direct violation of Facebook’s policies. They’re bot being paid directly by Meta, rather they’re taking advantage of Facebook’s content monetization policies.
Hugo Lennon is a far-right agitator and he had a recent racist outburst against the Indian prime minister. He also references white supremacists. He has been making money from content monetization since September 2025.
The anti-vaxxer Monica Smit founded the anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine group Reignite Democracy Australia and also has joined Facebook’s content monetization since September 2025. She has been making money from Facebook advertising since 2017. She promotes misinformation about vaccines and sells “radiation protection” bracelets on her personal website.
In 2025, Facebook paid almost $3 billion US dollars to around 16.2 million monetized accounts. The above bad actors are:
“According to Facebook, the monetisation scheme that Hugo Lennon, Monica Smit, March for Australia and The Noticer appear to be profiting from is ‘an invitation-only programme that lets you earn money from the performance of your eligible public reels, photos, stories and text posts.’ What To Fix executive director Victoire Rio said it meant that, in effect, Facebook was in a business relationship with these people and organisations. ‘If we consider that Meta is in a direct commercial relationship with its publishers, insofar that they’re paying them royalties and that they have a monetisation agreement with them, then you could argue that they are liable for the content that gets produced by their business partner in some ways.’”
Meta is purposely paying these social rage baiters because it gets engagement:
“Independent right-wing extremism researcher Kaz Ross said paying controversial creators was a deliberate strategy from Meta. ‘Their financial model is to reward content creators who get engagement, and as we know, the best way of getting engagement is to produce rage bait, extremist material, aggravating material: anything that will get people upset and arguing is the best way to get engagement,’ Dr Ross said.”
Do you need any more proof that Meta only cares about its bottom dollar? Bet your bottom dollar that people will continue to love, respect, and trust Facebook. Gag us with a spoon!
Whitney Grace, August 31, 2026
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