Social network X has begun reducing monetization of accounts that clutter the feed with clickbait, aggregation of other people’s news, and artificially inflating urgency through markers like BREAKING.
Social network X has begun reducing monetization of accounts that clutter the feed with clickbait, aggregation of other people’s news, and artificially inflating urgency through markers like BREAKING.
This is reported by TechCrunch, citing a statement from X product manager Nikita Bir. He said that payments to aggregators in this cycle have been reduced to 60% of the previous level, and in the next one the company plans another reduction of 20%. Accounts that systematically use clickbait and submit almost every post as «breaking news» should be subject to separate cuts.
Beer explained that the flood of hundreds of other people’s reposts and sensational headlines began to crowd out original content creators and hurt the growth of new creators. At the same time, X, he said, is not going to limit reach or freedom of expression, but no longer wants to pay for manipulative behavior within the affiliate program.
After that, some of the big accounts started complaining about the demonetization. Among them was Dominick McGee, known as Dom Lucre, whose profile has 1.6 million followers. According to TechCrunch, he told The New York Times last year that he earned about $55,000 a year on X. In response to the new sanctions, McGee said that the platform punished him without explanation, although X users quickly added a community note with a calculation that he used the word BREAKING 91 times in a week.
The new wave of payment cuts coincides with a debate about how much X can still drive traffic to external sites. Against this backdrop, the platform is effectively making it clear that it wants to pay less to news aggregators and more to authors who create their own content.
Previously, dev.ua wrote about how independent app researcher Nima Ovji spotted an upcoming «Made with AI» label in X. This may indicate that users will soon be able to self-label content created with AI.
