X is cutting back on payments to accounts that are \u201cflooding the timeline\u201d with clickbait and rapid-fire news aggregation, according to its head of product Nikita Bier.<\/p>\n\n
Bier wrote Saturday<\/a> that \u201c[a]ll aggregators had their payouts reduced to 60% this cycle\u201d and said they\u2019ll see another 20% reduction in the next pay cycle. He also said the Elon Musk-owned social network will be reducing payments for \u201chabitual bait posters who use \u2018\ud83d\udea8BREAKING\u2019 on every post.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \u201cIt became abundantly clear: flooding the timeline with 100 stolen reposts and clickbait everyday crowded-out real creators and hurt new author growth,\u201d Bier said, adding, \u201cX will never infringe on speech or reach \u2014 but we will not compensate for manipulation of the program or our users.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Bier\u2019s comments came after a number of conservative news accounts began posting that they\u2019d received emails from X<\/a> notifying them that their accounts had been demonetized.<\/p>\n\n Dominick McGee, who posts under the name Dom Lucre, wrote<\/a>, \u201c\ud83d\udd25\ud83d\udea8BREAKING […] I was the first creator demonetized on this platform and I was for an entire year. I got it back and just lost it without any insight. How could this be possible? I am one of the hardest working creators on X.\u201d<\/p>\n\n McGee\u2019s account has 1.6 million followers on X. He first became popular for posting conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential election, and while he was temporarily banned from X in 2023 and demonetized in 2024, he told The New York Times last year<\/a> that he was making $55,000 a year from the platform.<\/p>\n\n