Meta has abruptly slashed promised payouts on its Reels platform by tens of thousands of dollars to many creators, blaming a glitch in its systems and spurring loud protest and calls for legal action from affected creators.
The promised payouts—which ranged as high as $45,000 per video according to screenshots viewed by Fortune—involve Meta’s test of a new ad revenue sharing program for Reels videos that use music from Meta’s library. Angry comments and screenshots from creators posted in the private Meta Creator Community (US) Facebook group revealed the extent of the diminished earnings, with previously promised payments of tens of thousands of dollars in some cases, suddenly revised to hundreds of dollars. Meta appears to have deactivated comments in the group as a mountain of negative comments piled up.
“To work so hard and be encouraged by the extra financial boost, to suddenly have thousands of dollars taken out of nowhere is a gut punch, and it’s unfair to creators,” wrote one author in a comment to the group viewed by Fortune.
A Meta representative sent Fortune a statement that "due to a display error, a small number of creators were shown incorrect Ads on Facebook Reels approximate earnings in the Insights tool. Payouts were not impacted. We apologize for the inconvenience."
For Azure MacCannell, the creator behind cleaning-hack–focused social media account @livecomposed, the error was no small matter. MacCannell expected to earn $29,720 this month from her Instagram and Facebook Reels, according to the data provided by Meta (confirmed by a screenshot viewed by Fortune). This is a huge bump from the $6,000 to $7,000 she usually earns from Meta for her videos featuring tips for plunging toilets and snaking drains. The exponential increase resulted from her participation in Meta’s new music program that promised to pay creators ad revenue shares when they use music from the Meta library on their Reels.
Then, without warning, her earnings dropped to $3,261 for the same period, confirmed by screenshots viewed by Fortune. And it’s not just MacCannell; many creators who participated in the program are seeing the decimals move on payouts for the July pay period.
“It’s a big slap in the face to creators on Meta platforms—I think a lot of us are done,” says MacCannell. “We’re the heart of Meta; we are the reason that people show up to Facebook and Instagram, so I don’t understand tossing creators around like we don’t matter.”
MacCannell is certainly not the only creator who feels burned. In a private creator Facebook group run and moderated by Meta employees, creators are rioting—expressing enormous dissatisfaction, tagging Meta moderators en masse and threatening legal action.
The creator in the group who spoke of the “gut punch” described having his expected earnings drop from $8,000 to $1,600 for the month. “The lack of consistency on FB and IG right now in terms of monetization and also glitches in general makes me want to stop trying. Because I never know what to expect,” the person said.
These creators posted screenshots of the error messages they received when they went to look at their earnings and found the diminished numbers: “Ads on Reels licensed music earnings displayed July 6 to August 1 may have been incorrect due to an Insights tool display error for these dates for the payment you will receive,” reads the message pinned above their earnings estimates viewed by Fortune.
Another creator wrote in the group that she is considering a class action lawsuit and asked creators to send her screenshots of the diminished earnings as she builds evidence for a potential case, writing that her earnings had dropped from $65,000 to $400.
Yet another creator said that when she used music from the program, her account was flagged for a copyright violation.
This is the latest hit to creators by Meta, a platform many creators feel has underpaid and underappreciated them. Over the winter, the company abruptly ended its Reels Play bonus program, which in its short existence was compensating creators inconsistently, but sometimes fairly, for their video content. The company also launched its new platform Threads without disclosing any plans for creator monetization.
Creators are shocked by the response, or lack of a more detailed response or explanation, from the company for the revised payout figures. When creators posted their earnings from the Meta music program in the creator Facebook group earlier this week, the group moderators seemed pleased by the large sums. “That’s amazing! Do you have any ads on Reels strategies to share with the community?” wrote “MCC moderator” in response to a creator who posted his $45,000 earnings, and added: “These earnings are approximate so may change throughout your payout period as Ads on Reels is currently in testing. Keep us updated!”
Now, many creators are talking about leaving Meta platforms. “We’re steering more towards TikTok and YouTube because they’re more consistent,” says MacCannell. “You can only be jerked around so much before you just say, ‘I’m not doing this anymore.’”
