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Musk Halts X’s Plan to Favor Local Views in Creator Payouts

The retreat signals a test of X’s effort to curb engagement farming by steering rewards to home audiences.

Overview

  • X proposed the change Tuesday with a Thursday start, then Elon Musk paused it hours later after creators objected.
  • The plan would give more weight to impressions from a poster’s home region to discourage chasing the larger U.S. and Japanese audiences.
  • Creators in smaller markets warned their pay could drop because much of their reach comes from English-language posts read abroad, and Nikita Bier told one user X would not pay for foreign takes on U.S. politics.
  • X ties the proposal to platform integrity, following a feature that exposed popular political accounts posting about the U.S. from countries like India, Kenya, and Nigeria.
  • The pause comes as X enforces newer rules on conflict misinformation, including AI labels and a 90‑day payout ban for undisclosed, misleading war content, which reflects pressure to limit manipulation during recent Middle East tensions.