Elon Musk, the CEO of the microblogging platform X, publicly acknowledged on Thursday that the company was failing to adequately compensate its content creators. He openly praised Google-owned YouTube for its superior monetization framework, stating, "No, the issue is that we are underpaying and not allocating payment accurately enough. YouTube does a much better job." This candid admission came in response to an ongoing discussion thread initiated by X executive Nikita Bier, who serves as the head of product.

The conversation began on September 30, when Bier posted about upcoming "small upgrades for power users," noting that these were "quick fixes that somehow fell through the cracks." This post quickly garnered over 500 comments, with a significant number of users expressing profound dissatisfaction with X's current payout system. Users detailed experiences of inconsistent earnings, underpayment compared to peers, and a lack of transparent tracking features, with one user, Peter Duan, explicitly offering data to support claims of being "consistently underpaid." Another user shared a screenshot of a payment dashboard, advocating for a similar feature on X.

As the thread continued to accumulate reactions, primarily centered on monetization issues, Nikita Bier himself suggested a shift in strategy. He remarked, "At this point, I think creator payouts does more harm than good—and we need to off-ramp to a different system." More than two weeks after Bier's initial post, the discussion evidently captured Musk's attention, leading to his strong condemnation of X's underpayment practices and his commendation of YouTube's model.

Musk’s comment, however, also brought to light a broader range of problems with X’s algorithm and its promotion of user-generated content. Many users echoed Bier’s sentiment that the monetization program was detrimental. User Rod Breslau, for instance, argued, "creator payouts have incentivized slop accounts, intentional misinformation, ragebait, reply spam, bad actors and the deterioration of discourse between users." Other criticisms focused on content theft, with users like investigative journalist Anna Matson highlighting how influencers and AI accounts frequently repost original work from smaller creators without giving proper credit or compensation. Matson drew a comparison with TikTok, which she noted pays only for original content, and stressed the need for a mechanism to report non-original posts. Furthermore, some users pointed out an alleged "anti-India" bias, suggesting that the monetization system inadvertently encourages "sensationalism, fiction over facts, and often hateful posts that drive engagement," citing "Anti-Indian, anti-india, anti-H1B posts" as prime examples.

X's creator monetization program was inaugurated under Elon Musk’s leadership following his $44 billion acquisition of the platform. Designed to allow verified users to earn a share of ad revenue based on user engagement with their posts, the program has been plagued by numerous complaints since its inception, including issues with erratic earnings, delayed payments, and opaque performance metrics. With Elon Musk now directly engaging in the conversation about these monetization challenges, there is heightened anticipation among creators regarding whether X will promptly address these pressing concerns and potentially overhaul its payment system.