X has announced a reduction in payouts to accounts that rely heavily on clickbait content and high-volume news aggregation.
The platform’s head of product, Nikita Bier, said accounts identified as aggregators would see their earnings cut by 60 per cent in the current payout cycle, with a further 20 per cent reduction planned in the next cycle.
Bier said the move is aimed at discouraging content practices that flood users’ timelines with repetitive or misleading posts, particularly those using sensational language such as “breaking news” to attract engagement.
He noted that such practices have crowded out original content creators and negatively affected user experience and platform growth.
The policy change follows complaints from several content creators who reported receiving notifications of demonetisation.
One affected user, Dominick McGee, who posts under the name Dom Lucre, said his account had been demonetised despite his high level of activity on the platform. McGee, who has over 1.6 million followers, previously earned income through X’s creator monetisation programme.
Bier maintained that while the platform would not restrict users’ reach or freedom of expression, it would no longer reward content strategies perceived as manipulative.
The move reflects a broader effort by X to rebalance its creator ecosystem by prioritising original content over aggregation and engagement-driven tactics.
