Key Points:
- X is updating its revenue-sharing rules to favor engagement from a user’s home region.
- The goal is to encourage content relevant to a user’s country, neighbors, and language.
- The change aims to reduce “gaming” the attention of US or Japanese accounts.
- X will stop sending money overseas for content focused on US politics from non-US accounts.
X is changing how it shares revenue with users, and the new rules will put more importance on how much engagement a user gets from their own home region. Nikita Bier, the company’s Head of Product, announced this shift, explaining that the goal is to “encourage content that resonates with people in [the user’s] country, in neighboring countries and people who speak [their] language.”
Bier added that while X values everyone’s opinions on US politics, the company hopes this new policy will “disincentivize gaming the attention of US or Japanese accounts.” The US and Japan are the countries with the most users on X. Bier didn’t explicitly mention it, but late last year, when X introduced a transparency feature showing users’ locations, it was revealed that dozens of popular accounts tweeting pro-Trump messages and general US political commentary were actually based outside the US. These accounts, which pretended to be from the US and gained millions of likes, views, and reposts, turned out to be from countries like India, Kenya, and Nigeria.
“X will be a much richer community when there’s relevant posts for people in all parts of the world,” Bier stated. When one user commented that some countries barely have any X users, making it hard to earn money there, Bier simply suggested they write about their daily experiences instead. He clarified, “Of course, you’re welcome to continue chiming in on America politics. We just won’t send money overseas for that content.” X’s new policy will officially start on Thursday, March 26.
