Elon Musk’s X has reduced payments to users who post clickbait and recycle news stories, in a move the platform says is aimed at discouraging low-quality content and boosting original work.
The company warned account holders against “flooding the timeline” with material it considers unoriginal or repetitive. The change affects users described by X as “aggregators” — accounts that quickly repackage and repost news from other sources.
Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, said on the social media platform that all such aggregators had received less money from the company’s creator revenue sharing programme. He said the platform would reward original creators as it penalises accounts that spread “stolen posts” across the service.
The move reflects X’s continuing effort to shape what appears in users’ feeds and to influence how creators earn money on the platform. By targeting accounts that rely on reposted material, the company is signalling that it wants to steer revenue toward posts it sees as original rather than recycled.
The policy also highlights a long-running challenge for social platforms: how to encourage fresh content while limiting the reach and rewards for accounts that thrive on republishing material from elsewhere. On X, that debate now appears to be tied directly to payment levels.
For users who have built audiences by quickly sharing news from other sources, the change means lower earnings if their posts are judged to fall into the aggregator category. For original creators, X says the intention is to direct more of the programme’s benefits toward content that is made first-hand.
The announcement adds to the broader changes Musk has made to the platform since taking over, as X continues to adjust both its content rules and the way it compensates users. In this case, the company is drawing a clearer line between original posting and accounts that amplify the same stories repeatedly.
As Bier’s comments indicate, X is now treating the issue as both a quality control problem and a monetisation issue. Users who depend on clickbait-style packaging or recycled news may see less financial reward, while those producing original material are expected to benefit.
