NewsBreak had a MAJOR Hiccup That Cost Me Money and Views

So, picture it. Sicily, 1923 Sorry. I love Golden Girls. Seriously though, I JUST was raving about NewsBreak in a previous article. Wanna see it? Here it goes. Things were okay. However, they soon fell apart, quickly. What’s worse, I’ve only been monetized for about a month.

My entire catalog of articles was taken down and I didn’t even get an email. A close friend downloaded the app just to read my work. She could see all of the other people she followed, but not me. To say I am livid is an understatement. I still had access to the comments. But, it’s like my page had been turned off.

The worst part about this is, I don’t know how much longer my page would have been down had I not been the one to contact them. That’s not cool. I get paid per view. So time down means money lost.

That wasn’t all. Whenever I tried to go to the articles individually, I got the following messages— for EVERY SINGLE ARTICLE! I logged off and on. I refreshed constantly. Nothing helped.

The man in my above screenshot must be looking for my article, because I darn sure couldn't find them.

NewsBreak was already giving me a tough time with my headlines. I thought it was just me. For whatever reason, no matter how mundane my title is on missing person cases, there is always an issue. Here is an open ticket that I have at this moment for the latest story I uploaded. It is concerning a missing 13-year-old that has been gone for a month. As you can see, the title is pretty straightforward. The NewsBreak Gods didn’t agree.

Now, I have no idea what “attention” my headline needs. I also don’t know why there was even an issue with my headline revealing how long this child was missing. That information follows the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

However, when the content is not centered around a missing person of color, it goes through without a hitch. Am I playing the conspiracy theory card—maybe. But I have 18 articles published. To me, this is not a fluke.

They aren’t even consistent in their answers when I email support. For example, the screenshot above said that the phrase "missing for one month" was the problem. Support told me that wasn't the case. I still don't know what the issue is.

Back to the topic at hand. My page had been down since last night and I didn’t get any type of message. I only found out trying to share a link to one of my missing person articles. When I asked what the issue was, this is the message that I received.

And just like that after a day offline, and missing thousands of views, I was back online without any real explanation. I will continue to share my work through them and test out the platform, but I will no longer share my affiliate links with other writers. I can’t in good consciousness if this is what they are doing.

I will jump off the cliff and build a parachute on the way down. However, I won’t recommend something to someone for the sake of coffee money unless I believe in it a hundred percent. And at this time, I can’t say that I have that confidence in them.

Are any of you on NewsBreak. Are you having any issues? Share your experiences. I would love to read articles about NewsBreak here on Vocal. I will definitely keep and eye out just so that I can know I’m not alone.