Cracking Down on the 'Recyclers'

Elon Musk’s X is taking aggressive steps to penalize aggregators (users who quickly repackage and repost news from other sources). The platform warned that these accounts are "flooding the timeline" with low-quality content, making it harder for original creators to be seen.

Aggregators act like digital middlemen, taking information they didn't gather and presenting it as their own just to earn views. X's leadership emphasized that this behavior hurts the platform’s overall health by crowding out genuine authors.

"Flooding the timeline with 100 stolen reposts and clickbait every day crowded out real creators and hurt new author growth."

Heavy Financial Penalties

Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, announced that aggregator accounts have already seen their payouts reduced by 60%. He added that another 20% deduction is coming soon. This hits the pockets of users who rely on high-volume, low-effort posting strategies.

Specific behaviors that will trigger these cuts include:

  • Overusing the "🚨BREAKING" siren emoji to create fake urgency.
  • Posting unlabelled AI-generated videos, especially those related to sensitive topics like war.
  • Reposting content without adding any unique commentary or value.

These changes have already impacted several high-profile influencers who claim their revenue sharing was stopped "without any insight," despite having millions of followers.

Prioritizing Originality and Value

Identifying Original Authors

X is currently trialing new tools designed to identify the original authors of content. Once fully implemented, the system will allocate a portion of the total advertising revenue directly to the person who created the post first, rather than those who just shared it.

Fighting 'AI Slop'

The platform also pledged to introduce an "iron slopdome" to tackle "AI slop" (mass-produced, low-quality content generated by AI to farm engagement). This is part of a broader effort to ensure that human-led creativity remains the core of the X experience.

By restructuring the Creator Revenue Sharing program, X aims to incentivize high-quality, original material. The message is clear: if you want to get paid on X, you must bring something unique to the table instead of just hitting 'copy and paste.'