Elon Musk announced that the social media platform formerly known as Twitter will demonetize posts whose content is corrected by Community Notes in hopes of boosting “incentive for accuracy over sensationalism.”
“Any posts that are corrected by @CommunityNotes become ineligible for revenue share,” Musk wrote on his X account on Sunday.
The move comes amid fierce criticism of Musk for allowing users to spread unverified claims about the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.
Community Notes lets X users act as de facto fact-checkers for misleading posts that are deemed to contain misinformation or fail to provide accurate context.
In the days after Musk completed his $44 billion acquisition of what was then known as Twitter, he praised Community Notes, which in its earlier iteration was called Birdwatch, as having “incredible potential for improving information accuracy” on the platform.
As of June, Community Notes numbered some 133,000 X users scattered across more than 15 countries, according to Poynter Institute, a journalism non-profit organization.
A post from Community Notes will see the light of day if enough members from across the political spectrum reach a consensus view, according to Poynter.
Musk, the Tesla mogul with a net worth of $216.8 billion who occupies the top slot on Forbes magazine’s list of world’s richest people, made wholesale changes to the platform’s content moderation policy upon buying the company last year.
The self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist” reinstated controversial accounts that were banned by the company’s previous management structure.
But Musk’s free speech ethos has reportedly scared off advertisers who have taken their dollars and fled the site.
Monthly ad revenue at X has declined at least 55% year-over-year each month since Musk bought the company in October 2022, according to third-party data provided to Reuters.
The company has struggled to retain some advertisers since the takeover, as brands have been wary of rapid changes under Musk’s ownership.
Musk has been exploring several options to extensively monetize the social media platform.
Last week, he rolled out two new subscription plans on Friday, including a Premium+ tier for users willing to pay for an ad-free experience.
The Premium+ plan, priced at about $16 per month, includes all the tools and features offered by the platform, minus the ads, the company said in a post on the platform.
It will, however, be available for users accessing the platform through a web browser for now, it added.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
