Meta’s Rage-Bait Paychecks: ABC Investigation Finds Facebook Paying White Nationalists and Anti-Vaxxers Despite Policy Violations

ABC News Verify Investigation: Facebook Content Monetisation Programme

An ABC News Verify investigation published on August 6, 2026 found that Meta is directly paying several controversial content creators through its invitation-only Facebook Content Monetisation programme, which shares advertising revenue with creators .

Which accounts received payments:

• A white nationalist with neo-Nazi links who hurled racist abuse at the Indian prime minister during his visit to Australia
• A prominent anti-vaxxer
• The content produced by these creators appears to be, at times, in direct violation of Facebook's own policies
• Separately, a June 2026 study found that Facebook pages flagged more than 10 times for fake content by fact-checkers continued making money, including after suspension

Meta's response:
Meta has not publicly terminated payments to these accounts. The company's invitation-only programme continues to pay them despite the policy-violating content . A LinkedIn post referencing the investigation noted that the white nationalist was "being paid by Facebook's parent company, Meta, to produce content" .

What critics said:
Critics have described the programme as a system that incentivises "rage-bait" — content deliberately designed to provoke anger and engagement, which in turn generates higher advertising revenue . The International Business Times reported that the programme is "under fire" for monetising controversial content, with the $3 billion creator programme coming under renewed scrutiny .

AI-Generated Child Abuse Imagery on Meta Platforms

Meta faced a major controversy in August 2026 after an investigation by Wired and the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) found that Meta approved more than 50 paid ads containing AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM) . Key findings:

• The ads ran across Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Messenger
• They were posted between November 2025 and August 2026
• Some ads directed users to "nudify" apps — services that use AI to create non-consensual sexualised images
• The ads reached thousands of accounts, and some remained live even after Meta was directly confronted about them

Meta removed the ads only after Wired contacted the company . In February 2026, Spain also announced it would investigate Meta, X, and TikTok over AI-generated CSAM .

Apology to India Over CSAM and Content Moderation

On August 5, 2026, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg formally apologised to the Indian government over multiple issues :

• The presence of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in paid ads on Instagram
• Deepfake content circulating on the platform
• "Errors in operating the platform" — including the temporary removal of a Facebook post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi
• Meta's Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan personally apologised to IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

The apology followed the Indian government issuing a notice to Meta over CSAM in ads in July 2026 , and a meeting where the government made clear the company "must adhere to Indian laws" .

Privacy Concerns Over Meta's Smart Glasses

Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses have attracted multiple privacy controversies:

• Covert recording ("pervert glasses"): The glasses' built-in camera allows users to record video hands-free, leading to a wave of non-consensual recordings posted online. Instagram began cracking down on such videos in July 2026 . Fortune reported the problem had grown enough to be called a "'pervert glasses' problem" .

• Secret face-recognition code: In June 2026, security researchers alleged Meta had "quietly embedded face-recognition technology for its smart glasses into an app downloaded onto millions of phones", raising mass-surveillance concerns .

• European Parliament inquiry: In May 2026, the European Parliament flagged that Swedish investigative reports revealed the glasses can "record private situations and sensitive personal data without users' awareness and without the consent of the third parties concerned" — raising GDPR compliance issues .

• Advocacy backlash: Over 75 advocacy organisations signed a letter in April 2026 denouncing the technology as a "dystopian invasion of privacy" that poses a "serious threat to privacy and civil liberties" .

• Meta's response: Meta announced it is updating the second-generation glasses so the camera will shut off if the device detects the privacy LED has been obscured — an acknowledgement of the covert-recording problem .