How Quest For X’s Ad Sharing Revenue Is Breeding Fake News

When in July 2023, ad revenue sharing was introduced on X, content creators, especially in Nigeria, were excited. The feature, however, came with a catch. To be eligible for a piece of Elon Musk’s ad revenue, who purchased the company on October 27, 2022, at $44 billion, creators are required to subscribe for the Blue Tick – a once status symbol used to recognise influential accounts.

Since that introduction, the number of blue tick accounts has soared with X doling out millions of dollars to content creators. In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, many of the 5.7 million users of the platform now scrabble for a share in Musk’s revenue.

Every pro has a con; the introduction of monetization on X brought about opportunities for content creators to monetize their efforts. However, a closer look at this feature reveals a sporadic shift in the nature of X’s content, which has altered the landscape of the platform. In Nigeria, many people merely tweet for engagement, in a bid to ‘farm’ engagements and receive a larger portion of the ad revenue.

This shift, financially appealing for some, raises questions about the authenticity of the content being put out, deviating from the original idea that birthed the platform. One notable downside emerged as individuals began to capitalize on the opportunity to monetize their content by any means necessary, putting out controversial tweets, using unrelated hashtags and mentions of trending subjects to reach larger audiences and ultimately amass an impression.

Tracing back to the idea behind X, it was created as a digital town hall for meaningful discourse —a place where important conversations happened, and users turned for up-to-the-minute news and updates. In September 2022, X reviewed that 85 percent of people on the platform watch, read, or listen to the news at least once a day. Also, 83 percent if the platform users tweet about news.

Now, the craze for impressions and having a piece of the ad revenue has caused a drastic shift from the very unique feature of X. The platform, according to European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova, has become a breeding ground for fake news.

X is “the platform with the largest ratio of mis- or disinformation posts,” Jourova said. Also, a recent report by the EU’s executive arm, European Commission, which studied six online platforms in Poland, Slovakia and Spain, found that “X has the highest discoverability of disinformation.”

While it is crucial to earn a living as content creators, there should be a striking balance between incentivizing creativity and preserving the integrity of the twitter community remains a critical objective. This can be achieved by distinguishing creators from verified users by creating a distinct badge for creators while retaining the blue tick for verified users.