Elon Musk halts new ‘local priority’ revenue sharing model on X after creators raised concerns that it will penalise English content from outside the USA

In a swift reversal, social media platform X has halted a planned update to its creator revenue-sharing program after widespread backlash from international creators. xAI chief Elon Musk announced that the policy has been put in pause until further consideration after several users pointed out that it will penalise content in English posted from non-English speaking countries, especially from outside the USA.

The change, announced earlier today by X’s head of product Nikita Bier, aimed to prioritise impressions from users’ home regions to promote more localised, linguistically relevant content and curb perceived gaming of high-value advertising markets like the United States and Japan. Bier posted on X, “Starting Thursday, we’ll be updating our revenue sharing incentives to better reward the content we want on X: 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.”

Nikita Bier further stated, “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.”

The intent of the change was to reduce the incentive for low-effort or spam accounts, often from lower-cost regions, to flood high cost markets like the U.S. for ad revenue, while encouraging authentic local discourse worldwide. Impressions from a creator’s home region and linguistically/culturally adjacent areas would be boosted in the revenue calculation, while foreign impressions would carry less weight.

Creator Concerns: “Penalizing” English Content from Outside the USA

The update sparked immediate alarm among creators who post in English as a global lingua franca but are based outside the U.S. Many argued it would inadvertently punish high-quality, non-gaming accounts whose audiences are naturally international, particularly American, due to the broader reach.

Designer and content creator Dogan Ural posted, “This CAN’T be serious!? You do realize there are global content types beyond politics, right? This is a mistake that will ruin the nature of X. Please revert it before it’s too late.” Even though nobody was tagged in the post, Elon Musk noticed it, and replied with “Good Point”.

Similar concerns poured in from creators worldwide. An Italian account noted having less than 2% Italian followers despite promoting tourism and culture. A Japanese user living in Japan who posts exclusively in English reported 70% of followers from other countries. Emirati, Polish-American, and other voices highlighted how the change could fragment X’s role as a “global town square,” restricting cross-border conversations on politics, culture, and ideas.

Critics feared it would disproportionately hit English language creators targeting U.S. audiences for revenue, even if their content was original and non-exploitative. While the policy targeted “slop,” spam farms, and election-influence operations, it risked collateral damage to organic global creators who have built audiences organically through English.

French AI artist and illustrator Déborah (@dvorahfr), wrote in a post on X: “I’m based in France, but 43% of my audience is American. I know many of us are in the same situation. To reach a wider audience, all my posts are in English, the international language. Those who cause trouble may be punished, but with this change, which will significantly reduce our earnings, you’re also penalizing a number of accounts that use the international language without any ill intent. X tells us that videos and new, high-quality content will be prioritized, but this change will, on the contrary, drastically reduce our earnings. Is there any way to reverse this decision, please?”

She tagged Elon Musk and Nikita Bier in the tweet. Musk responded to her tweet stating, “We will pause moving forward with this until further consideration.”

This single post by Musk effectively shelved the rollout pending further internal review. The pause came just hours after Bier’s announcement and amid concerned posts from creators.

The proposed update was part of X’s ongoing evolution of its creator monetisation program, which has grown significantly since major overhauls in 2023. Revenue sharing has rewarded viral content but also incentivised low-quality engagement farming, AI-generated spam, and rage-bait targeting lucrative U.S. markets.

The platform deemed it necessary to protect the program’s integrity and prevent “foreigners” from monetising American political discourse. However, global content creators warned of turning X into “a village market” rather than a global platform.

Written by OpIndia Staff
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