X is reducing payments to accounts that are “flooding the timeline” with clickbait and rapid-fire news aggregation, according to head of product Nikita Bier. Bier stated that all aggregators had their payouts reduced to 60% and will face another 20% reduction in the next cycle. Bier also mentioned reducing payments for “habitual bait posters” who frequently use “🚨BREAKING” in posts.
“It was evident that flooding the timeline with excessive reposts and clickbait hindered real creators and new author growth,” Bier remarked, adding that while X won’t limit speech or reach, it won’t reward manipulation. Bier’s remarks followed claims from conservative news accounts regarding demonetization notifications.
Dominick McGee, posting as Dom Lucre, expressed frustration, noting he was the first to be demonetized and questioning the platform’s decisions, despite his extensive efforts. McGee, with 1.6 million followers, gained fame for conspiracy theories and cited making $55,000 yearly from X after a previous ban.
McGee criticized Bier’s post, suggesting X was swayed by complaints from non-creators. Though admitting that frequent “breaking news” posts are clickbait, he argued most of his posts aren’t labeled as such. However, community notes indicated he used “BREAKING” 91 times in a week.
Other users claimed they were affected by X’s actions, with the account PoliMath expressing concern over reduced payouts despite not being an aggregator, albeit acknowledging a partnership with Kalshi.
Bier’s comments coincided with renewed debates on X’s value, with analyst Nate Silver criticizing the platform’s difficulty in driving traffic and highlighting right-wing dominance on X, with some analyses supporting Silver’s claims despite Bier and Musk’s objections.