X is changing its revenue-sharing policy to deter users pretending to be Americans

X is updating its revenue-sharing incentives to give more weight to engagement from a user’s home region, Nikita Bier, the company’s Head of Product has announced. Bier said the change in policy was to “encourage content that resonates with people in [the user’s] country, in neighboring countries and people who speak [their] language.” Bier continued that while X appreciates everyone’s opinion on US politics, the company is hoping the new policy can “disincentivize gaming the attention of US or Japanese accounts.” The US and Japan have the largest number of users on X. Bier didn’t mention it outright, but dozens of popular accounts tweeting pro-Trump sentiments and commentaries focusing on US politics in general were revealed to be based outside the US late last year, when X rolled out a transparency feature that exposed users’ locations. Those accounts, which pretended to be from the US and garnered millions of likes, views and reposts, turned out to be based in countries like India,