In what may be a perfect summary of Elon Musk’s erratic management approach at the app, X yesterday announced, then retracted, a planned update to its creator monetization program which would have disincentivized foreign agitator accounts from posting about political topics purely to generate more engagement.
In an X post yesterday, Nikita Bier, the platform’s head of product, said that X would be updating its revenue share incentives in order to give more weight to impressions from each user’s home region.
As explained by Bier: “While we appreciate everyone’s opinion on American politics, we hope this will disincentivize gaming the attention of U.S. or Japanese accounts and instead, drive diverse conversations on the platform.”
Bier’s reference here is to the breadth of non-U.S.-based users who post about American politics, in order to spark more engagement with their updates.
Indeed, when X launched location listings in its profile information panels last November, it revealed that some of the most followed accounts that post about U..S. politics in the app are actually foreign-based users seeking to capitalize on the division and angst within the U.S. political landscape.
Bier further noted that he hoped X’s renewed approach to regional engagement would prompt creators to start building an audience locally, and said that “X will be a much richer community when there’s relevant posts for people in all parts of the world.”
A noble, and logical strategy, at least from a certain perspective. But X users set to be impacted by a reduction in their reach as a result, and thus, their monetization potential, were quick to voice their concerns with the plan.
Several highly followed accounts posted their complaints about the proposed update on X, noting that they would have to significantly change their content strategy as a result. Musk got wind of the rising dissent, and hours after Bier’s announcement, he nixed the concept entirely, noting that X would “pause moving forward with this until further consideration.”
source mst
