Musk Halts X Plan to Cut Foreign Influencer Revenue
▼ Summary
– X’s Head of Product announced a change to creator payouts, giving more weight to impressions from a creator’s home region.
– The stated motivation is to discourage engagement farming, specifically from political posts targeting US or Japanese accounts.
– Elon Musk clarified that this announced change is not going live immediately.
– The platform is considering monetizing previously used, inactive account handles.
– The full details of the story are available in the original article on The Verge.
In a recent development, X’s Head of Product, Nikita Bier, announced a significant adjustment to the platform’s creator monetization system. The proposed change, which was set to begin this week, aimed to alter how revenue is calculated by prioritizing impressions from a creator’s home region. According to Bier, this shift was designed to address concerns about engagement farming, particularly through content focused on American or Japanese politics from accounts based elsewhere. The goal was to more accurately reward content that resonates with a creator’s primary audience.
However, the plan has been paused. Shortly after the announcement, Elon Musk indicated the update would not proceed as scheduled. The decision underscores the ongoing internal discussions about balancing creator incentives with the platform’s broader content ecosystem. The initial rationale focused on discouraging attempts to artificially game the system by targeting the attention of users in specific, high-value geographic markets without genuine local relevance.
This pause leaves the future of regional weighting in payouts uncertain. The proposal highlighted a tension common to global platforms: how to fairly compensate creators while maintaining authentic engagement and deterring manipulative practices. For now, X’s revenue sharing algorithm will continue under its existing structure as leadership re-evaluates the approach.
(Source: The Verge)
