X Targets Paid Creators Who Don’t Label AI-Generated War Content

Over the weekend, the US and Israel launched air strikes against Iran after tensions escalated over nuclear and regional activities, and Iran responded with missile and drone attacks across the region. Unsurprisingly, the attacks have unleashed a torrent of responses from social media content creators. But in this age of artificial intelligence, some of the videos and images they shared were falsified by AI.

On Tuesday, Nikita Bier, head of product at X, said the platform will penalize creators in the company’s creator revenue-sharing program if they share any AI-generated war content without a disclosure. The revenue program allows creators to earn income based on the popularity of their posts. Those who violate this new policy face a three-month suspension. Repeat offenders risk being permanently banned from the creator revenue sharing program. 

As AI transforms many facets of technology and social media, distinguishing real reports from AI-generated fakes can be difficult. According to a CNET survey, only 44% of US adults can confidently distinguish between real and fake images and videos encountered online.  

“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,” Bier wrote on X. 

Although X is implementing this new policy for its paid creators, it’s unclear if there will be any consequences for those who share similar content but aren’t in the creator revenue-sharing program. Suspending only revenue-earning creators may hurt their wallets, but it does nothing to address the greater dangers posed by the spread of false war information.

An X representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to Bier, X will catch violators through posts flagged with a Community Note or through content that contains metadata or other signals from generative AI tools.