Elon Musk's X Targets Copycat Accounts, Redirects Creator Payouts To Stop Viral Content Theft

X's revenue-sharing programme was being gamed. Large verified accounts profited from stolen videos while original creators earned nothing. That is changing.

X's new update aims to make sure original creators get the credit and the cash.

Source : ABPLIVE AI

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Key points generated by AI, verified by newsroom

• X is stopping accounts from earning on reposted viral videos.
• Large accounts were reuploading content to gain revenue share.
• Platform will redirect impressions to original creators now.

X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk, is taking action against accounts that repost viral videos from smaller creators to earn money through its monetisation programme. The platform's Head of Product, Nikita Bier, announced the move after a creator complained that larger accounts were routinely downloading and reuploading his videos without giving him credit. 

The update targets what had quietly become a widespread practice on the platform, where big verified accounts were cashing in on content they did not make.

How Accounts Were Gaming X's Revenue Sharing Programme

X's Creator Revenue Sharing programme had, without intention, created a copycat economy on the platform. Large verified accounts figured out they could earn thousands of dollars by downloading trending videos and reposting them before the original creator's content had a chance to gain traction. The original creators, meanwhile, were left without credit or earnings.

According to Bier, the company had identified a number of accounts that "have been programmatically reuploading content from smaller accounts to game the revenue share program and circumvent crediting the original author."

Over the past month, we have identified a number of large accounts that have been programmatically reuploading content from smaller accounts to game the revenue share program and circumvent crediting the original author.

We are now identifying these posts and allocating the…

— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) May 23, 2026

In response to the complaint from a creator, an X employee named Allegra Jacchia had also stated that larger accounts "won't earn from these posts since you are the original owner and poster of the video."

What X Is Doing To Fix It

X will now detect reposted videos and redirect all impressions to the original creator rather than the account that uploaded the copy. Bier also pointed users toward the platform's existing "Share Video" or "Quote" features as the right way to engage with someone else's content.

"If you have insightful commentary about a post, we recommend using the Share Video or Quote feature to ensure your posts are properly attributed," Bier said.

He also outlined his broader thinking on content: "It all boils down to: Providing the best tools to create content, incentivising the highest quality content, ranking that content so it finds its audience. Nothing else matters."

It all boils down to:

1. Providing the best tools to create content
2. Incentivizing the highest quality content
3. Ranking that content so it finds its audience

Nothing else matters.

— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) May 23, 2026

Bier joined X in 2025. He previously founded the viral apps tbh, acquired by Meta, and Gas, acquired by Discord, and also worked as a product manager at Meta from 2017 to 2021.

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