X cuts payouts to clickbait aggregators, boosts original content creators

X is cutting pay to accounts that flood the timeline with clickbait and rapid-fire aggregation, a move that puts the platform’s creator economy under a sharper test. Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, said all aggregator accounts had their payouts reduced to 60% in this creator payout cycle, and that they will face another 20% reduction in the next cycle.

Bier framed the change as an effort to reward originality rather than the accounts that repost, recycle or sensationalize other people’s work. X will not restrict speech or distribution, he said, but it will stop compensating accounts that manipulate distribution mechanisms or mislead users. The company is targeting the kind of posting that has long drawn complaints from users: engagement farming, stolen content, and repeated use of attention-grabbing labels such as “BREAKING.”

The shift is more than a simple payout adjustment. X is also testing tools designed to identify the original authors of content and direct a portion of revenue to them. That would move the platform closer to a system that pays the people who create or report the material first, rather than the accounts that amplify it fastest. NBC News reported that X was allocating a portion of revenue exclusively to original content creators for this payout cycle, with Bier saying the change would enrich the app’s timeline.

The new rules also draw a line between reach and revenue. Bier said X will not limit how far accounts can spread content, but it will not pay them for gaming distribution or misleading users. That distinction matters for a platform built on virality, where high-volume aggregators have often prospered by riding the work of journalists, creators and small publishers without adding much new context.

The overhaul comes as X has been trying to clean up other forms of abuse on the platform. Bier also said the company removed 1.7 million bot accounts engaged in reply spam. Taken together, the moves suggest X is trying to change the economics of its information ecosystem, not just its moderation rules. The open question is whether the company is building a fairer system for original creators or simply tightening the screws on the most visible high-volume middlemen.