According to a proposed class action, Facebook parent company Meta is accused of lying in order to appease investors that the impact of Apple’s iOS system privacy changes “is controllable”. However, the company then said in February that the adjustments will cost it $10 billion in lost ad revenue this year.
The Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 60 Pension Trust said in a securities lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in San Francisco that Meta executives failed to notify shareholders on last year’s earnings call. The suit also claims that Meta did not provide adequate information to investors. The company did not state that its efforts to offset any financial hit from Apple’s privacy tweaks did not work.
“Instead of being transparent to investors, the defendants painted a false and misleading picture alleging that Meta had mitigating measures to offset the impact of the iOS privacy changes and rebuilding of the advertising business model,” the trust said. As of now, Meta is yet to release an official statement with regards to the lawsuit.
Meta tests two creator incentive programs – to spend $1 billion by the end of the year
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, recently said that it would pay creators $1 billion by the end of 2022. To incentivize creators, Meta is testing various bonus features such as Reels Play, and Stars Double. According to reports, Facebook is quietly testing Engage and Views, which are also bonus programs for video/non-video posts, live videos, but not Stories and Reels.
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Facebook confirms the existence of projects, but most of them are not yet official. This is because they are still in early beta testing with a small scope. Engage has actually been active for a few months. When creators post on Facebook, Engage pays them a bounty depending on the “likes” and “shares”.
Another project that is also in testing is Views Bonus. This feature is for video and photo posts, and Views pays a bonus considering the number of content views.
So far, the bonus program has been invite-only.
Below is a brief list of 6 bonus programs that Facebook has launched and is developing:
- Reels Play Bonus: The bonus considers the number of views by the user’s Reels per month.
- Stars Double Bonus: A tipping feature for creators.
- Views Bonus: If the creator’s live/on-demand videos, photos, regular posts are viewed by netizens, they can get the corresponding bonus. However, Reels and Stories are excluded from billing.
- Engage Bonus: Creators can earn revenue from post interactions (like likes, comments, shares). Likewise, Reels and Stories are not part of this.
- Live Bonus: Pay creators based on live broadcasts, up to $2,250 per month.
- Subscriptions Bonus: Last year Facebook promised selected creators a $5-$20 bonus for every new paid subscriber they get. Creators can earn up to $10,000 a month.
