While X continues to alienate advertisers, recently suing groups over boycotts of the platform, the company has changed its creator pay policies to be less dependent on advertising. Previously, creators were paid a portion of the ad revenue they earned from ads that appeared in their replies. Now, X says it will instead pay creators directly based on engagement with their content from X's premium users.
This change means creators will instead benefit from posts that drive engagement. This is a move that could change the type of content that becomes popular on X. Often, once a platform starts rewarding engagement, creators start posting things that encourage some kind of discussion. This includes posts designed to infuriate users and force them to respond or comment.
Ironically, X's rival Instagram Threads is already facing issues with the latter type of engagement, also known as “anger bait.” This type of engagement prioritizes comments over other more passive responses like likes and reposts. This system can encourage creators to post content that sparks discussion and responses, pushing their posts into more people's algorithmic feeds. In fact, the issue has become so acute on the thread that Instagram head Adam Mosseri acknowledged it in a recent post, stating that “not every comment or reply is good.” The thread said engagement bait is on the rise. It was working to keep it under control.
However, X appears to be going in the opposite direction with its new policy, forcing creators to generate replies for any reason.
In its announcement about X, the company did not explicitly say it would crack down on the system in any way to reduce engagement fodder, instead saying that creators would be able to earn more money this way.
“The more premium subscriptions you have overall, the more revenue you earn,” the X-post states.
Dear creators! We're excited to announce our biggest update to creator revenue sharing yet.
Payouts are increasing, and you'll now be paid based on engagement with your content from premium users, rather than ads within replies.
Here are the changes:
— X (@X) October 9, 2024
Company X did not disclose whether or how the percentage of payments to creators would change, but the change is due to increased opportunities for engagement as payments no longer rely on advertising. This seems to suggest that the rate will increase.
The new system could address creators' concerns that their revenue share will decrease as Company X loses advertisers to boycotts and other factors. In addition, premium subscribers will see a reduced ad load, or even no ads if they are in the top Premium+ tier. That expensive tier went completely ad-free in August, instead of just offering ad-free “For You” and “Following” feeds as before.
Currently, to be eligible for monetization, X users must be verified (registered for Premium), have at least 500 followers, and have at least 5 million post impressions within the past 3 months. These requirements were already causing creators to generate content and threads designed primarily to garner replies and attention, changing the type of content shared and the nature of discussions that took place on the platform. X had few guardrails beyond restrictions around spam, illegal content, and running promotions like sweepstakes. Mr. X said other types of restricted content, such as adult content and hate speech, “may be limited” in monetization.
Since X currently rewards creators based on engagement from subscribers, creators may generate more of this type of content. The move, just ahead of the US election, could also increase the use of politically-themed anger bait, including misinformation such as AI deepfakes, to attract attention.