So you are a content creator on Facebook, hit a big number, and suddenly Meta restricts your Monetization and withholds all your past earnings? You are not alone.
Thousands of creators like you are facing the same issue. It’s happening at a large scale. Creators in groups and forums are sharing their troubling experiences about Meta not paying out the earnings they’ve earned through the Bonus Program.
Let me share you my personal experience
I had two Facebook pages enrolled in the Bonus Program. One page had been monetizing for almost two years, which I never bothered to check its earnings. It’s currently still monetizing (reached a total of $30 last month). The other page focuses on the sports niche.
In June 2024, the UEFA Euro Football Championship took place and that’s when luck started to turn in my favor. Most of my content suddenly went viral and I earned over $1,700 in June. I was highly motivated. Prior to June, the page was only making between $0 and $2 per month.
By July 2024, the page grew from 6k to 44k followers in just 45 days. Then, when the Summer Olympics kicked off, more content went viral and the page reached around 100 million views. Can you guess how much the page earned? Over $9,000. It was earning more than $300 a day.
Then, on August 1 2024, boom! I received a notification saying that my page monetization had been restricted. I thought, “I knew this was coming, but where did I go wrong?” “Which content violated the policies?”.
Believe me, I was extremely careful with what I posted. As someone with a decade of experience in blogging and digital marketing and having partnered with platforms like AdSense, Amazon Affiliate, Taboola, Ezoic, MGID, RevContent, and many other reputable publishers and networks, I know exactly what to do and what to avoid.
The payment Meta never sent me
So, where is the $1,700+ I earned in June, long before my page was restricted? It was supposed to be paid on July 24, 2024, but the money never showed up in my account. After multiple follow-ups with Meta Support, they finally told me on Aug 14 2024 that the payment had failed or bounced. How and why? Only Meta knows. Honestly, I suspect it was never paid in the first place.
Now, it’s March 2025, and Meta still hasn’t released my payment. All the banking details I’ve submitted are correct, and I even received a confirmation from Meta saying, “You can earn and start receiving payouts again”.
The mystery – “Meta withholding payments from creators”
My $11k+ is stuck. It’s a significant amount for me, and I had plans for my daughter and family. So, I started digging into this issue on forums and groups.
I came across hundreds of posts and comments about the same problem on Facebook groups and subreddits. I also shared my own experiences and reached out to many other creators.
Surprisingly, many of us have faced the same situation. Here’s the pattern we’ve all noticed:
- Your content goes viral and starts earning a decent amount.
- Suddenly, monetization issues appear and Meta restricts your account from monetizing further (creators faced no such issues in the past when earnings were less).
- Issue type – flagged for “Behavior/content that is not following Partner/Content Monetization Policies”.
- All your past earnings are withheld for months or even years (I’ve heard some creators never get paid at all)
Are these creators really violating policies?
I could argue that every creator likely violates at least one of Meta’s vague Partner Monetization Policies. For example, take this official policy:
“Content that is unoriginal or reproduced without making meaningful enhancements (such as commentary, parody, or creative editing) cannot be monetized.”
According to this policy, I could demonetize any creator at my discretion.
Remember the other page I mentioned earlier? That page violates nearly every Meta Monetization policy. It’s been part of the Bonus Program for almost two years and while Meta has removed a few of my posts, the monetization was never affected. Why? Because the page only earned $0-6 per month.
Now, regarding the issue we’re discussing – “Meta restricting monetization when creators start earning thousands”.
Creators who genuinely violate policies typically get their monetization restricted but are informed about which specific content caused the issue. This allows them to fix it and avoid future violations, whether it’s related to “unoriginal” content, “copyright,” “self-harm,” or “tragedy.” Meta also removes the violating posts on its own and may restrict the page/profile for a certain period.
But in our case, all of us received the same generic restriction: “flagged for behaviour/content that goes against our Partner/Content Monetization Policies”.
And it doesn’t end there – the review option is completely greyed out.
So, how are we supposed to know which content or activity violated their policies? This seems like intentional flagging, doesn’t it?
Three things have become very clear:
- Meta restricts creators once they start earning substantial money.
- All affected creators face the same restriction: “flagged for behavior,” with the review option greyed out.
- Meta withholds all previous earnings.
Meta’s unhelpful support system and the lies
Meta offers a support system for creators particularly when it comes to payout issues. However, it turns out the system is largely automated, with AI handling most of the responses. You’ll often receive generic, unrelated replies from agents like Adam or George – names you’ve probably encountered before.
After several follow-ups with no results, I eventually gave up on this route. One response I received said, “We are escalating this to the concerned team. It may take up to 30 days.”. Well, 30 days passed, and I still haven’t heard back.
There are two other ways to contact support directly – one through Meta Verified and the other through Meta for Business (via the ad manager account). I opted for the second option and managed to chat with at least 15 different support agents.
The ironic part? Each agent gave a different answer to my issue. Two said, “I’ll definitely get my payment in November 2024.” while another claimed, “Withholding payments have nothing to do with monetization restrictions.”.
One agent with an Indian name said, “I’ll help you raise a ticket via this form and the restriction might be lifted within 24 hours.”. Meanwhile, an Asian agent admitted, “We have no authority to resolve this. All we do is assist creators with filling out a form for the specific issue they’re facing.”.
After enduring all these frustrations, I finally gave up. I lost hope of ever receiving the hard earned money, including the $1,726 one that they claimed had paid, but which ended up ‘bouncing’.
Final thoughts and what we need to do
It seems clear that Meta restricts monetization and automatically flags creators once their earnings reach a certain threshold. This appears to be a deliberate tactic to delay or deny payments. Meta is profiting from the hard work of creators while refusing to pay them, which is nothing but a big fraud.
Dear Mark Zuckerberg, if you’re reading this, please release all the earnings you’re withholding from creators.
We invest countless hours and tremendous effort to create content and help your platform thrive. We deserve some respect in return!
(If you’ve been or are currently affected by Meta’s deliberate strategy, please reach out to tech journalists, inform regulators and watchdogs, and share your story in the comments below. If enough of us raise our voices, Meta will have no choice but to respond and release our payments.)
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