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X replaces its revenue-sharing program with ‘Original Content Rewards’

2026-08-10T05:43:02-04:00

X wants to make money on previously used handles. | Image: The Verge

X is ending its controversial revenue-sharing program for content creators, which has seen numerous revisions under Elon Musk's reign. In its place, it's launching a new Original Content Rewards program on September 8th. To be eligible, creators must have at least 500 verified followers and at least 500,000 Home Timeline impressions from verified users in the last 90 days, among other requirements.

Creators will then earn revenue based on "qualified impressions" on "original content." Qualified impressions are unique impressions from Premium subscribers "on the Home Timeline feed, where at least 50% of the post is visible." What qualifies …

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Why does Apple keep banning Telegram, but never X?

2026-08-07T13:21:11-04:00

Elon Musk in the Oval Office on May 30th, 2025. | Photo by Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images

For roughly an hour this week, Telegram vanished from Apple's App Store. Even during that blip, it was a stunning absence for such a major app: an avenue of communication for more than 1 billion users around the world, used widely as a secure platform for people who live in countries under censorship. Apple later revealed that it had removed the app due to the presence of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and restored it once that content was removed.

But the decision once again stirred up questions and confusion about Apple's moderation policies and how it treats different companies. And one company in particular sprang to many people's m …

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X product chief Nikita Bier is leaving after one year

2026-08-05T18:19:55-04:00

X head of product Nikita Bier is stepping down and says he will move into a role as an advisor, writing that "it's time to pass the torch and demote myself to my natural state: a poster." He shared the update just over a month after celebrating his one-year anniversary on the job, and just weeks after Elon Musk's combined SpaceX / X / xAI companies went public.

He says that "almost every aspect of X" has been rebuilt while he was head of product, including its timeline, Android app, chat, and notifications. Going forward, the "next leaders" mentioned are Benji Taylor leading design with iOS lead Jonah Katz and Mridul Singhai leading the pr …

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X Money is launching in the US starting today

2026-07-28T04:59:47-04:00

X Money, a core part of Elon Musk's mission to turn X into an "everything app," is rolling out starting today, 9to5Mac reports. The payment platform offers a digital wallet and peer-to-peer payments similar to Venmo, along with a metal Visa card users can emblazon with their X username. Other perks include Apple Wallet support and free money transfers on X. It also advertises "up to" a 6 percent APY, but only Premium Plus subscribers are eligible for it - standard Premium subscribers have to deposit a certain amount of money to get a "boosted" 6 percent APY.

X Money was previously limited to an invite-only beta, but will now be available t …

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SpaceX in your index fund, explained

2026-07-20T17:12:45-04:00

AUUUUUGH | Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

Index funds are touted as one of the safest ways to invest. Rather than picking and choosing individual stocks, index funds let you bet on the market as a whole. So what happens when a company like SpaceX - a giant gamble, and, in my opinion, terribly overpriced - is fast-tracked into the Nasdaq-100? Does it suddenly threaten the stability of index funds based on the Nasdaq-100? Can a $1.77 trillion IPO crater the retirement funds of regular people who would ordinarily have no interest in investing in Elon Musk's meme stock?

The answer has less to do with SpaceX and more to do with index funds - how they work, their history, and why they've …

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xAI sues a man for using Grok to generate CSAM ‘deepfakes’

2026-07-15T17:33:20-04:00

The Elon Musk-owned xAI is suing a South Carolina man who allegedly used the company's Grok AI chatbot to generate child sexual abuse material (CSAM). In a lawsuit reported earlier by Reuters, xAI claims Terry Wayne Harwood "knowingly and intentionally used Grok to circumvent safeguards, alter nonconsensual images, and generate and distribute CSAM," breaching the company's policies.

Harwood was arrested in February for allegedly possessing and distributing CSAM and is facing eight felony charges. The lawsuit claims "at least some" of the images related to Harwood's criminal charges "were generated or altered" with Grok, and that Harwood byp …

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X admits its broken algorithm made the site feel like a ‘battleground’

2026-07-14T11:20:21-04:00

X's head of product, Nikita Bier, admitted in a post on Monday that X's algorithm was "missing" data about surfacing posts from people who you've followed back. Now, he says a tweak will "boost visibility of your posts to your mutuals," hopefully enhancing the sense of community instead of highlighting and spreading random arguments, but didn't explain how the data went missing in the first place.

Last week, Bier also said users who post original content will "climb faster," after admitting that top accounts on the platform have been posting "stolen" recycled content from other users, and now this tweak might address the platform's tilt tow …

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X says top accounts steal videos from other users as it announces new video tools

2026-07-07T14:28:08-04:00

Nikita Bier, X's head of product, said in a post on Monday that "[m]any videos from top accounts are simply stolen from other users, sometimes 5 years after they originally went viral," while noting that videos on the platform "make up close to half the impressions on X." According to Bier, X is launching a new in-app video editor and recorder to address this "recycled content," so that "some videos on X can finally be original content that doesn't exist on other platforms."

As previously reported by TechCrunch, the new video tools are available now on X's iOS app, and include an option for overlaying captions in multiple languages and a "g …

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Meet the lawyer who beat Elon Musk — twice

2026-06-30T08:59:20-04:00

“After college, my plan was to come to New York and get a record deal.” | Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images

Watching Elon Musk fulminate at Bill Savitt during Musk v. Altman - the case in which Musk sued Sam Altman and OpenAI instead of seeing a therapist about his AI failures - was a bit like watching a toddler have a temper tantrum at his nursery school teacher. Savitt's questions were "designed to trick me," Musk said. He also told Savitt at one point, "You mostly do unfair questions."

Savitt, who has the approximate demeanor of a handsome Droopy Dog, gently told Musk, "I am trying to put the questions as fairly as I can. I am doing my best."

I've seen a number of styles of cross-examination. Savitt's was mild-mannered and soft-spoken; his q …

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Bob Iger’s Disney wanted Apple, Twitter, and 007

2026-06-24T07:46:13-04:00

You can’t always get what you want. | Photo by Tommaso Boddi/Variety via Getty Images

Bob Iger's tenure as CEO of Disney came to an end a few months ago, after two decades of leading the entertainment giant through some of its most pivotal transformations and acquisitions. Iger, in an exit interview with The Financial Times, has now confirmed some significant efforts that didn't pan out, such as walking away from buying Twitter, being snubbed by Apple, and losing out on the James Bond franchise.

According to Iger, Disney came close to buying Twitter from cofounder Jack Dorsey "at a very attractive price," sometime prior to Elon Musk buying the social media platform in 2022 and changing its name to X. Iger had plans to turn T …

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