X is temporarily suspending accounts from its revenue-sharing program if they share AI-generated videos of armed conflicts without an AI disclosure label. This policy change aims to maintain content authenticity during times of war, such as the recent strikes between the US, Israel, and Iran, when misleading AI footage proliferates.
The platform will identify violations through Community Notes or AI tool metadata, with a 90-day suspension for first offenses and permanent removal from monetization for repeat violations. Notably, accounts can still share the unlabeled content but will not earn money from it.
The article highlights that while fake war footage is not new, advanced AI video tools now make it easy to create convincing fakes, and X's monetization system has incentivized rapid, unverified posting. The main topics covered are X's new demonetization policy, the challenge of AI-generated misinformation during conflicts, and the platform's reliance on community policing for enforcement.
X said it will temporarily demonetize accounts that share AI-generated war footage without a label. The decision comes days after the US and Israel launched airstrikes in Iran and AI-slop war footage flooded social media timelines across the internet.
“Today we are revising our Creator Revenue Sharing policies to maintain authenticity of content on Timeline and prevent manipulation of the program. During times of war, it is critical that people have access to authentic information on the ground. With today’s AI technologies, it is trivial to create content that can mislead people,” Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, said in a post on X.
Many of the AI-generated videos currently on X purport to show Iranian ballistic missiles hitting sites in Israel. One video shared thousands of times on X showed missiles slamming into the ground near the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem while a computer generated voice said “Oh my god, hear they come.” X users community noted the video, but the account that shared it has a Bluecheck and is eligible for a financial payout for engagement as part of X’s content creator program.
Bier said today that X will stop people from making money on unlabeled AI war footage, but won’t stop accounts from sharing it.
“Starting now, users who post AI-generated videos of an armed conflict—without adding a disclosure that it was made with AI—will be suspended from Creator Revenue Sharing for 90 days. Subsequent violations will result in a permanent suspension from the program,” he added. “This will be flagged to us by any post with a Community Note or if the content contains meta data (or other signals) from generative AI tools. We will continue to refine our policies and product to ensure X can be trusted during these critical moments.”
Fake war footage shared on social media isn’t a new problem. For several years every new conflict would be met with a flood of fake videos. Old war footage passed off as coming from the current war was popular, but so was recordings of video games run through filters to make it look low-resolution. The same three clips from milsim video game Arma 3 were shared at the outbreak of every new conflict for a decade. The Government of Pakistan even shared Arma 3 footage once in a post that’s still live on X.
What is new is the proliferation of easy to use AI video-generation tools. AI image and video generation has come a long way in the past few years and it’s trivially easy to remove the watermark that’s supposed to distinguish them from the real thing. X’s verification system—which rewards accounts for engagement—has also created incentives for Bluecheck accounts to publish fast, verify later (if ever), and rake in the cash. So in the hours and days after the war with Iran began, fake footage of airstrikes and conflict spread on X.
The way X is handling the problem gives the game away. According to Bier, the site will rely on the community to police itself and the punishment is a 90 day suspension not from the site but from the monetization program.
Meridiano
