Elon Musk Pauses X’s New Revenue-sharing Plan After User Backlash

The owner of X, Elon Musk has announced a pause in the rollout of the platform’s proposed new revenue-sharing model following backlash from users.

The decision came shortly after X’s head of product, Nikita Bier, unveiled changes intended to prioritise localised content within the platform’s monetisation system.

In a post on Wednesday, Bier said the update, which had been scheduled to take effect from Thursday, would place greater weight on impressions from users’ home regions.

According to him, the adjustment was designed to encourage creators to produce content that resonates more strongly within their countries, neighbouring regions, and among audiences who speak the same language.

Bier said the change was also aimed at discouraging creators from targeting users in countries such as the United States and Japan primarily to boost engagement and maximise earnings.

“Starting Thursday, we’ll be updating our revenue sharing incentives to better reward the content we want on X,” Bier wrote.

“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 who speak your language.

“While we appreciate everyone’s opinion on American politics, we hope this will disincentivize gaming the attention of US or Japanese accounts and instead, drive diverse conversations on the platform.

“We invite creators to start building an audience locally. X will be a much richer community when there’s relevant posts for people in all parts of the world.”

However, the announcement sparked mixed reactions across the platform, with some users raising concerns over the possible impact on reach, earnings, and global visibility.

Following the backlash, Musk said the company would suspend the rollout for now.

“We will pause moving forward with this until further consideration,” Musk wrote.

X’s revenue-sharing programme allowed eligible creators to earn income based on engagement with their content, particularly from advertisements displayed in replies.