As X continues to alienate advertisers, even recently suing a group over their boycott of the platform, the company is shifting its creator payments policy to be less dependent on ads. Before, creators would be paid a percentage of the ad revenue from ads shown in their replies. Now, X says it will instead pay creators directly based on engagement with their content that comes from X’s Premium users.
The shift means creators will instead benefit from creating posts that drive engagement — a move that could change the type of content that becomes popular on X. Often, when platforms begin to reward engagement, creators will begin posting anything that drives a discussion of some sort, including posts that are designed to enrage users, forcing them to reply or comment.
Ironically, X rival Instagram Threads is already facing issues around this latter type of engagement, sometimes dubbed “rage bait,” which prioritizes comments over other more passive responses, like likes or reposts. The system can encourage creators to post content that would spark debate or replies, pushing their posts into more people’s algorithmic feeds. The problem has become so bad on Threads, in fact, that Instagram head Adam Mosseri acknowledged the issue in a recent post, saying that “not all comments or replies are good,” and that Threads has seen an increase in engagement-bait, which it was working to get under control.
X, however, is going in the opposite direction with its new policy, which would seemingly push creators to generate replies, no matter the reason.
In an announcement on X, the company does not indicate that it will in any way police this system to cut back on engagement bait, but instead says that creators will earn more money this way.
“The more Premium subscriptions overall, the more revenue you can earn,” the X post states.
X did not share if and how creator payout percentages would change, but seems to be suggesting that they’ll increase because of the increased opportunities for engagement, now that payments aren’t ad-dependent.
The new system could address creator concerns about their reduced revenue share as X lost advertisers due to boycotts and other factors, in addition to the fact that Premium subscribers see either reduced ad loads, or even no ads, if on the top Premium+ tier. That pricier tier became fully ad-free in August, instead of just offering ad-free For You and Following feeds, as before.
Currently, X users have to be Verified (subscribed to Premium), have at least 500 followers, and have at least 5 million impressions on their posts within the past three months to qualify for monetization. These requirements had already led to creators generating content and threads designed primarily to attract replies and attention, changing the nature of the type of content being shared and the discourse taking place on the platform; X had few guardrails in place beyond limits on spam, illegal content, and running promotions, like sweepstakes. X said other types of restricted content like adult content or hate speech “may” face “restricted” monetization.
With X now rewarding creators based on engagement from subscribers, it’s likely that creators will generate more of this type of content. Arriving just ahead of the U.S. elections, the move could also prompt increased usage of politically themed rage bait, including misinformation like AI deepfakes, in order to attract attention.