X aims to prevent creators from profiting by using stolen viral clips.

      The platform is lowering payouts for users accused of reposting copyrighted content and manipulating engagement.

      For several years, X has discreetly encouraged one of the most irritating online business models: taking someone else's content, quickly reposting it with "BREAKING" stamped on it, and generating millions of views before the original creator even notices. Now, the platform appears ready to address this entire ecosystem.

      X states that repost farmers and clickbait accounts are facing reduced payouts.

      As explained by X's head of product, Nikita Bier, the company is now focusing on large accounts that have been "programmatically reuploading content from smaller accounts" to exploit X's creator revenue-sharing system. The platform claims it will now shift impressions and monetization benefits back to the original creators instead of repost aggregators.

      Over the past month, we have identified several large accounts that have been systematically reuploading content from smaller accounts to manipulate the revenue share program and evade crediting the original author. We are in the process of identifying these posts and reallocating the...— Nikita Bier (@nikitabier) May 23, 2026

      Bier indicates that X has begun recognizing accounts that misuse the system and is aggressively cutting their payouts. In some cases, repeated offenders have reportedly seen their creator revenue reduced by as much as 90 percent. This crackdown also seems to be aimed at accounts continuously inundating timelines with clickbait headlines, recycled videos, engagement posts designed to provoke outrage, and rapid aggregation. X suggests that creators who wish to add commentary should use the appropriate "Quote" or "Share Video" features to ensure the original uploader receives proper attribution.

      X inadvertently profited from content theft for many years.

      Interestingly, this issue was never truly concealed. Once X began compensating creators mainly based on impressions and engagement, the platform quickly became overwhelmed with repost accounts that harvested viral videos, provocative political content, AI-generated material, crypto spam, and recycled posts created solely to pursue monetization payouts.

      And honestly, X established the perfect incentive structure for all of this. Reposting someone else's content was often quicker, simpler, and more lucrative than creating original work in the first place. That is precisely why this crackdown was likely inevitable; if actual creators stop benefiting from their own content, the platform gradually devolves into a never-ending stream of stolen content vying for ad revenue.

      Varun is a seasoned technology journalist and editor with over eight years of experience in consumer technology media. His work encompasses...

      The police are getting involved and they want social media bans for users under 16.

      From private messaging to inadequate age verification, UK police are pushing to eliminate six high-risk features for children. UK law enforcement is no longer willing to wait for tech companies to take action. The National Crime Agency (NCA) and National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) have jointly urged that children under 16 should be barred from all social media, gaming applications, or AI that does not deactivate what they classify as "high-risk" features. This plea coincides with the UK government's ongoing consultations about the possibility of instituting a complete social media ban for users under 16, according to the BBC.

      Social media is diminishing your happiness with every scroll.

      The more you scroll, the more your happiness diminishes. Doom-scrolling is the worst. What starts as "just five minutes" can easily turn into an hour or more, leaving you feeling worse about your life than before. I had to remove Instagram from my iPhone just to prevent myself from squandering hours each evening. If you've experienced a similar sense of despair after a scrolling session, research supports that feeling. The World Happiness Report, published by the Wellbeing Research Centre at the University of Oxford, has discovered a clear correlation between excessive social media use and declining wellbeing, with younger people, especially girls in the Western world, being the most affected.

      Meta has created a Reddit competitor out of Facebook Groups.

      The platform has discreetly launched Forum, an app that organizes community questions and answers from Facebook Groups into a standalone space. This app provides Groups with a new platform for discussions, recommendations, and responses that would typically reside within Facebook. For anyone who has searched through years of group posts for valuable information, Forum appears to be Meta’s effort to make that knowledge more accessible without directing users back to the main feed.