X redirects $1m in payouts to original creators in AI content crackdown

X is overhauling its creator revenue-sharing program to penalize users who monetize stolen content or artificially inflate their engagement. Under the new rules, the social media company will systematically redirect advertising revenue from fraudulent posts back to the original uploaders.

The enforcement relies on an upgraded version of X’s Grok AI model, which now identifies duplicated content at three times the rate of the previous iteration. Nikita Bier, an X representative, disclosed that the latest detection cycle flagged 1.5 million stolen posts. Consequently, more than $1 million in creator payouts that would have gone to copycats will instead be paid to the original creators.

This crackdown extends beyond recycled videos. Users who add watermarks, custom intros, or other edits to disguise stolen footage will trigger an automatic revenue transfer. The same rules now govern copied viral text posts. As proof of the practice's prevalence, Bier pointed to the frequent theft of the phrase, “Twitter is like the smoking section of the internet.”

X is simultaneously targeting the manipulation of its monetization system through engagement bait. Users who explicitly solicit follows or replies will face escalating penalties. An account caught committing three such offenses will be permanently removed from the creator program and referred to the platform’s policy team for a potential suspension.

The company is also accelerating its removal of automated accounts that facilitate these schemes. In April, Bier noted that X was identifying and suspending 208 bots per minute, a figure the company says is still growing.

For the broader digital economy, this shift alters the financial incentives for content creators. Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Reddit have long relied on technical fixes like uncredited repost detection to manage this issue. By directly tying AI detection to the reallocation of cash payouts, X is raising the financial stakes of content theft.

Digital entrepreneurs and media companies can no longer rely on aggregated or bait-driven growth to secure platform revenue. The policy effectively forces a shift toward original production, changing how value is distributed in the creator economy. The move follows previous criticism from Bier, who has publicly called out major creators like MrBeast for relying on financial bait to secure video views.