South African content creators have been excluded from the Facebook level up program after months of streaming and creating amazing online content. The reason to why South Africans are not eligible to be part of the Level Up program is unclear and there is no indication to when South Africa will be able to join.

We have a large community of creators all with a common goal of using Facebook to provide quality local content to our audiences and encourage more people to become content creators and further grow the gaming community and culture South Africa has.

During this global pandemic creators not only turned to Facebook as their streaming platform of choice, but used it to create interactive communities where viewers made new friends and had a safe and fun space to break away from everyday worries and were also able to support creators in the process.

Vivek Sharma, head of Facebook Gaming, said the following in an interview with cheddar.com published on 19 June 2020. "Gaming had Gamergate which was a huge, horrible scandal. It was terribly handled by a lot of companies involved, by a lot of people involved," recounting a conflict over issues of diversity and inclusion in gaming that erupted in 2014. If this is the true sentiment why are South African content creators being excluded?

He also went on to say the following, "The first and foremost responsibility we have is to make sure that our creators can make money,". With Local creators having spent countless hours and their own money on getting streams up to an international standard there is no way for the streams to be monetised and goes against what Sharma says.

And lastly he wants to create a healthy environment for creators and viewers to enjoy gameplay and interact with their favourite creators. Why exclude a group who share in that vision but allow underage kids to stream as level up creators with no issues and even worse, have people using the Facebook streaming platform the exploit their hacking and toxic ways with no shame without being banned and also still being part of the level up creator program.

We have a large community of streamers and supporters who have started showing unity as a community. This has been the positive aspect, the silver lining, of this past year of COVID-19. Gaming for this community of content creators and everyday gamers who support them has been our countries exploration into social gaming and an outlet of expression.

We want facebook to include South Africa to the list of countries able to join the Level up Program.

Please help us get this noticed by signing the petition and sharing with your friends so we can finally get small creators from Africa noticed and award them the opportunity to use Facebook as a platform not create and earn.