X has announced new monetisation rules aimed at reducing the reposting and reuploading of other users’ content for financial gain.
The platform said it will introduce an Original Content Rewards Program to reward creators who bring original ideas, expertise, reporting, creativity and commentary to X. The new system is also intended to ensure that creators who produce original work benefit from the engagement and revenue generated by it.
X to reward original content
Announcing the programme through its official X Creators account, the platform said, “Today, we're introducing the Original Content Rewards Program, a new way to reward creators who bring original ideas, expertise, reporting, creativity, and commentary to X. The best content on X doesn't stop at resharing what already exists — it adds something new.”
Under the new approach, X said it will take stronger action against accounts that repeatedly repurpose content without adding meaningful value.
The platform said its systems can use Grok to detect copied content, including cases where users attempt to disguise reposted material by adding watermarks, introductions or other edits.
X has previously said it detected around 1.5 million stolen posts during a recent review and redirected more than $1 million in creator payouts to the original content owners.
Impressions generated by content identified as reposted may now be attributed to the original creator instead of the account that reuploaded it. Repeated violations could also lead to the loss of access to X’s monetisation programme.
What counts as original content?
According to X, original content is material created personally by a user and reflects their own voice, perspective, expertise or creativity.
This includes:
Original writing, threads, articles, reporting and analysis
Photos and videos created by the user
Memes, graphics, illustrations and other creative work
Commentary, reactions and insights that add meaningful perspective
Existing content that has been materially transformed through original context, analysis, narration, humour or creative editing
What content will not qualify?
X said content copied directly from another account, downloaded and reuploaded, or republished without meaningful transformation will generally not be considered original.
The same applies to captions or text overlays that merely describe existing content, purely descriptive summaries and reaction posts that add little or no value.
Adding attribution, handles or logos to a repost will also not make it original if there is no meaningful commentary, analysis, creativity or context.
X clarified that the Original Content Rewards guidelines are separate from its intellectual property policies.