Elon Musk Pauses Ad Revenue Sharing for Certain Creators on X
Elon Musk announced on his social media platform, X (formerly Twitter), that ad revenue sharing for some creators will be paused due to bot spamming. This decision comes as a response to an ongoing investigation into the bot problem on the platform.
"Ad revenue sharing will be paused for some creators pending investigation into use of bots to spam likes, replies, DMs, etc.," Musk wrote on X.
Musk emphasized that the purpose of creator payouts is to incentivize high-quality content. However, he noted that some users are exploiting the system to generate ad revenue, which is "obviously not ok."
"The point of creator payouts is to incentivize high-quality content on X. In some cases, we are seeing the opposite, where people are spamming the system to generate ad money," Musk said.
This move is the latest in a series of actions taken by Musk to address the bot problem on X. Earlier this month, he announced that the platform would charge a small fee for new users to post, with the primary goal of curbing the bot onslaught.
In October, X began charging a $1 annual subscription fee for new users in New Zealand and the Philippines as part of its "Not A Bot" program, aimed at mitigating spam, manipulation, and bot activity on the platform.