The Honey Scam's Impact on Christian Content Creators
And the people who support them.
On December 21, 2024, a YouTuber named MegaLag published an exposé that broke the Internet.
Honey, an incredibly popular website browser extension with more than 17 million users that scours the Internet for discount codes for nearly any product (and to use on nearly every website), has been stealing affiliate revenue from websites, businesses, social media influencers, content creators - basically anyone who uses the Internet for commerce - and defrauding consumers by quietly working with major retailers to pre-determine the kind of discounts that Honey will “find” for people using the service. The technical specifics on how Honey does this are complex, but the evidence in MegaLag’s exposé is overwhelming, undeniable, and indefensible. Popular legal YouTuber Devin Stone, aka Legal Eagle, has launched a class action lawsuit against PayPal, the company who owns Honey, on behalf of anyone who may have had affiliate revenue stolen from them by Honey. His explanation of Honey’s actions are brief, but very simple and clear for anyone to grasp:
The scale of Honey’s deception cannot be overstated. Commerce is the backbone of the Internet and Honey’s scheme touches any and every corner of the market; we are discussing billions of dollars in potentially stolen revenue. This scheme:
Defrauds anyone who uses affiliate links as a means of generating passive income from partnerships and promotions with other companies.
Defrauds anyone who wants to support their favorite website or content creator by using an affiliate link to purchase a product (and then used Honey to try to find any additional discounts).
Defrauds anyone who uses Honey by claiming to find the best discounts on the Internet when those discounts may have been pre-selected by businesses ahead of time.
Defrauds businesses who distribute affiliation links as part of their marketing efforts from collecting accurate data on how beneficial those partnerships and sponsorships are.
Defrauds businesses by tempting them with an opportunity to lie to their customers rather than build their trust through quality products and services at competitive prices.
All of those points are significant, but its perhaps that last one that grieves me the most. Honey is owned by PayPal. PayPal is one of the most important financial institutions in the world. We are in the midst of a significant crisis in institutional trust, and this scam will not only amplify this trust crisis, but will cause it to reverberate far beyond PayPal and the businesses who partnered with them to defraud their customers. The last thing our culture needs are more reasons to be suspicious and distrust the institutions who are supposed to give us the peace and stability we believe we are losing. This scam will donate years of free kindling to those who want to burn “the system” down, with no vision or plan for an alternative and not fully aware of the true horrors that follow with total institutional collapse.
But that’s not what I want to focus on here. Instead, I want to talk about what this scam means for Christian content creators specifically (and the people who support them).
For most Christian content creators (and by that, I mean Christians who are creating content about God, the Bible, the church, theology, or other subjects pertaining to Christianity), content creation is a side-hustle, not a day job. Whatever equipment or services you need to create your content comes out of your own pocket. You do it because you love it, but doing it on the side and maybe making a few bucks in the process is the ceiling the majority of us will ever reach.
Affiliate programs and/or brand partnerships are an important stepping stone for content creators for two reasons. One, it can be an easy step for a creator can take if they want to earn income from their work. You may need to reach a certain audience threshold as a prerequisite, but that is a goal you were likely working towards already. Second, if you’re doing content creation just on the side, the threshold for breaking even on your expenses is usually very low. At the height of my biggest creative endeavor, my former music review website/podcast Another Ascending Lark, I think my monthly expenses totaled around $80-$100 month (not counting one-off purchases) for a custom Wordpress website and domain, podcast hosting, stock images, music and software subscriptions, and more. Your monthly expenses might be higher. They might be lower. In both cases, the revenue from affiliate programs and/or brand partnerships might not pay your water bill this month, but it might recoup your baseline expenses for your work.
For the biggest YouTubers in the world, Honey’s fraudulent scheme may have deprived them of serious money from their affiliate programs and brand partnerships. However, the biggest YouTubers in the world aren’t dependent on these programs to survive. Their operations have diverse income streams, as do other large organizations who use affiliate programs to generate additional funding. The same cannot be said for smaller content creators. For people creating content on the side or trying to get off the ground, that revenue is the difference between taking their work to the next level, or making their work sustainable over the long haul. Creating content is hard work. Wanting to create better content without the funds to do so is hard. Wanting to create content over a long period but wondering whether you should invest $1,000 a year (or more) into something that amounts to little more than a hobby is hard. Any income your work generates lessens that burden, and gives you encouragement to keep going.
As bad as this scam is for creators, I think it’s even worse for those who support them. I’ve bought numerous products from friends over the years using their affiliate links, often because I wanted to buy whatever product they were promoting and because I wanted to support their work in a meaningful way. For however long this scam was going on, fans and supporters thought they were chipping into their favorite content creators, and if they were using Honey at the same time, they were unaware that they too were being robbed from.
That’s what makes this scam so insidious. It steals from multiple parties, and in multiple ways. It inflames our suspicion and mistrust of organizations we depend on and the world we share at a time when we need confidence that our sacrifice and support of others makes a meaningful difference.
We need more Christian content on the Internet. We need more ordinary, normal Christians creating content about the Gospel, theology, evangelism, apologetics, and more in any and every format and corner of Digital Babylon. But that work takes time and, often, money. $100 in affiliate revenue is a rounding error to the largest YouTubers in the world. $100 in affiliate revenue is an answered prayer for someone pouring their heart out into their work and who needs to justify the expenses to get off the ground or keep going. I shudder to think about the amount of income Christian content creators have lost as a result of Honey’s scam, and what a potentially life-changing difference it could’ve made for them and their work.
Needless to say, if you have Honey installed on a web browser, you need to uninstall it and encourage others to uninstall it as well. It steals money from those who have legitimately earned it and lies to you in giving you the savings it claims to give you. If you are a Christian content creator, or work for an organization (Christian or not) that does content creation and makes heavy use of affiliate programs or brand sponsorships, consider looking into the Eagle Team’s class action lawsuit (obligatory “I am not a lawyer” disclaimer here). If you’re a content creator who participates in affiliate programs or brand partnerships, consider looking into other routes for monetization. If you’re a big fan of a content creator, be sure to look into other routes to financially support their work. The affiliate link/brand partnership system is about to be violently shaken once the breadth and depth of this scheme truly sinks in. If you can diversify, you need to do so.
Regardless if you’re impacted by this scandal or not: if you’re a Christian content creator, keep creating. Digital Babylon is a dangerous and unfair field, but your work is not in vain. The Spirit is pleased to work through many diverse means to accomplish the ends of God’s plan of salvation, and your presence and suffering for causing an increase in the word of God is glorifying to him.
Thanks for reading. I’ll keep an eye on this story and write on it again if anything significant develops from it. For my next post I hope to start a yearly tradition doing something that all of us should feel comfortable doing: admitting some of the things that I was wrong on over the past year or two.
If you’ve enjoyed this piece, please consider subscribing and sharing with your friends! And remember: together, all of us are passing through this temporary digital empire towards the celestial city.
- Austin