Problems Inside Facebook Gaming’s Black Creator Program; Meta Expects Revenue to Drop

On Monday, I reported that Meta Platforms has reduced the contracts it paid out to creators on its game-streaming service Facebook Gaming. As part of my reporting, I confirmed that Meta let its Black Gaming Creators Program, a $10 million fund, sunset at the end of last year. That brings up an important question of how successful this fund and others like it have been in supporting Black creators.

Former participants of the Black Gaming Creators Program told me there were several problems with the program. As with other creators paid by Facebook to stream, creators in the Black gaming program complained of delayed payments. Facebook Gaming’s dashboards sometimes miscounted the number of hours creators streamed, which meant creators had to wait an additional 30 days to be paid their monthly stipend. Meta said a small cohort of creators were impacted by such reporting issues, which were resolved. 

Specific to the diversity-focused program, creators said it was sometimes difficult to get hold of a representative inside Meta to push the mission of the program. Meta had developed the program to help Black gamers become full-time streamers, announcing it during a period of increased attention to systemic racism following the death of George Floyd.