X is cutting back on payments to accounts that flood the timeline with clickbait and rapid-fire news aggregation. According to X's head of product, Nikita Bier, payouts for aggregators will be reduced by 60% this cycle and another 20% in the next cycle. The move aims to prevent manipulation of the platform and encourage real creators.
The change affects accounts that post multiple times a day with sensational headlines, such as "🚨BREAKING". This includes an account named Dom Lucre, who has 1.6 million followers on X and was making $55,000 a year from the platform before being demonetized last year. He claimed to be one of the hardest working creators on X.
X users are divided over the change, with some supporting the move to reduce payouts for aggregators and others expressing concern that they may be affected by mistake. Data analyst Nate Silver has also criticized the platform, saying it's become difficult to drive traffic from X to other websites due to its dominance of right-wing accounts.
