X announced in 2026 that it is tightening enforcement against content theft and engagement bait in its creator revenue-sharing program, using an upgraded version of its Grok AI model to identify duplicated posts at three times the rate of its previous version.
Nikita Bier, who announced the changes, said X’s latest enforcement cycle detected 1.5 million stolen posts. As a result, more than $1 million in creator payouts will be redirected to the original creators of that content. The policy now covers stolen video and viral text posts alike — Bier noted that one of the most commonly stolen text posts is the phrase “Twitter is like the smoking section of the internet.”
Under the new rules, adding watermarks, intros, or other edits to disguise stolen content will not protect a user’s earnings. Instead, monetized impressions from such posts will be sent to the original uploader. Repeated or intentional attempts to evade the policy will result in removal from the creator program entirely.
X is also cracking down on engagement solicitation. Users caught three or more times asking for follows or replies — for example, by posting “I’ll follow everyone who replies” — will be removed from the creator program and referred to the platform’s policy team for potential account suspension.
The move comes as X works to address broader abuse of its platform. In April, Bier said X was identifying and suspending 208 bots per minute, a figure he described as growing. The company has also added an improved video editor and recorder to encourage creators to produce original content using X’s own tools.
Platforms including Instagram, Facebook, and Reddit have faced similar content-theft challenges and have implemented their own technical measures to address reposting without credit.
Source: TechCrunch