Elon Musk says X will “pause” new creator monetization rules that would base payouts on engagement from a user's local audience, after criticism from creators
Social media platform X swiftly backtracked on its announcement regarding new rules for creator monetization …
TechCrunchIvan Mehta
Context & Ripple Effects
X has repeatedly adjusted the mechanics and thresholds of creator revenue sharing, including a shift to Premium-user engagement as the payment basis. The latest pause follows creator criticism of another proposed change, extending a record in which payout design has remained unsettled.
That instability matters because creators had already cited inconsistent payments and uncertainty around X’s creator strategy in earlier concerns about the program’s reliability. A rapid reversal makes the policy-setting process itself part of creators’ platform-risk calculation.
First-order effects
X will not proceed for now with payouts tied to engagement from a creator’s local audience, removing the immediate risk that the proposed geographic weighting would alter creator earnings.
Creators gain time to assess or contest the rule, while X must revisit a monetization change that drew sufficient criticism to prompt a public pause.
Second-order effects
Frequent changes to eligibility and payout formulas make creators less able to forecast platform income, strengthening the appeal of diversifying audiences and revenue across platforms.
The reversal raises the bar for future payout-policy changes: X will need clearer rationale and creator communication if it wants revisions to be accepted rather than quickly challenged.
Third-order effects
If repeated formula changes continue, creator monetization will compete not only on headline payout potential but on the predictability and governance of the payout system.
This is a data point in a broader shift toward engagement-based creator compensation, where platforms’ choices about which audience signals count increasingly determine who can build dependable businesses.
The trend: Creator platforms are moving toward more selectively weighted engagement payouts, making transparent and stable payment rules a central competitive feature.
Starting Thursday, we'll be updating our revenue sharing incentives to better reward the content we want on X: We will be giving more weight to impressions from your home region—to encourage content that resonates with people in your country, in neighboring countries and people
Terrible for me because my audience is mostly US But I am always outside US, like now Brazil, and other times Portugal or Thailand This isn't great for digital nomads
I'm based in France, but 43% of my audience is American. I know many of us are in the same situation. To reach a wider audience, all my posts are in English, the international language. Those who cause trouble may be punished, but with this change, which will significantly [image…
X was going to change their monetization program to emphasize local content, for example if content is about U.S. politics to get paid it would need to be from the U.S. or a neighbor. Then Elon realized all of MAGA is based in Nigeria, Pakistan and Eastern Europe. [image]
@forgebitz Out of curiosity, I simulated the impact based on last payout: Your payout would've been +168% higher Our regional bucketing aims to be very large and includes all of Western Europe.
monetize accounts of people from the blue countries and let us communicate with each other demonetize accounts of people from the red countries and let me opt out of seeing their posts it is that easy [image]
this was the one good idea to fix the disaster that has been the pay-to-play verified accounts system and the CEO is killing it before it can even begin wonder why? [image]
Periodic reminder that Twitter has one owner and one CEO and one head of product and they are all the same person. New from me: https://www.businessinsider.com/ ...
@jonatanpallesen For a random person signing up in France: Their very first timeline will likely include Trump ragebait and Silicon Valley chatter. We can't continue to incentivize the same kind of posts forever—and not try to expand our inventory. The network will never grow. It…
I've said repeatedly that X should just terminate the revenue structure to disincentivize fake news slop directed at Americans, so this is a positive change for the app. I've been posting for free on this platform long before it did payouts and I'd love to see it go back to that.