X owner Elon Musk announced on Sunday that the social media platform will no longer give revenue share to users who spread lies as part of its campaign to combat disinformation.
Musk said users on X who posted information that Community Notes later corrected will be ineligible to receive money for engagement on those tweets. The Community Notes feature on X is a crowdsourced program of fact-checkers that allows other users to correct information below a post.
For the past months, X has been criticized for allowing misinformation on the platform, with Musk also under fire for the rampant spread of disinformation on the social media service.
Elon Musk: X Posts With Misinformation 'Ineligible for Revenue Share'
Elon Musk posted on X on Sunday afternoon about a "slight change" to creator monetization, saying users posting misinformation corrected by Community Notes on X will not be able to monetize these posts.
"Making a slight change to creator monetization: Any posts that are corrected by @CommunityNotes become ineligible for revenue share. The idea is to maximize the incentive for accuracy over sensationalism," Musk tweeted.
However, Musk added that "weaponizing" Community Notes to attack other users on the platform to demonetize them would be "obvious" as its code and data are all open source. The change comes after it was reported that X had become a central hub for misinformation and extremism after Musk bought the site a year ago.
If Community Notes Corrects It, Post Is Ineligible
Posts will get demonetized if X users post something about fake news, and then Community Notes corrects the content. The platform was heavily scrutinized for the prevalence of misinformation or fake news from various accounts, with some even having verified checkmarks. It has also been the center of attention amid global conflicts.
Elon Musk and Misinformation on X
X has been criticized for how it handles content online, and this is because the proliferation of misinformation is massive on its platform, with many attacking Elon Musk for it.
Take, for example, the most recent issue about the Israel-Hamas conflict. Independent researchers and fact-checkers have warned of a surge in misinformation on X following the events surrounding the Hamas attacks in Israel.
The European Union (EU) even alerted the company of this occurrence. The platform then began to take action after Europe's top organization flagged X.
While X is not strict in taking down fake news on the platform as Musk believes in free speech, there are still features like the Community Notes, which could bring legitimate information to users.
Community Notes invites users to work as a watcher for X's content, and they will correctly identify information attached to the post but not exactly delete it for its users.
Now, Musk will demonetize those who share misinformation on X, and this is one of his moves that could stop fake news on the platform, but probably not entirely.
