X Overhauls Payouts to Penalize Content Theft

The company reported identifying 1.5 million stolen posts in its most recent sweep. Under the new policy, X will automatically detect edits—such as added watermarks or intros—that attempt to disguise pilfered material. This mechanism ensures that monetized impressions generated by repurposed viral posts flow to the original uploader rather than the account that scraped the content. According to company representative Bier, these adjustments will return more than $1 million in creator payouts to their rightful owners.

Beyond automated detection, X is tightening enforcement on accounts that engage in habitual manipulation. Users caught soliciting engagement—such as those who promise follows in exchange for replies—face a three-strike system. A third offense results in immediate removal from the revenue-sharing program and a referral to the platform’s policy team for potential account suspension. These measures complement the company's ongoing effort to purge the site of automated activity, which earlier this year reached a pace of 208 bot suspensions per minute.