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As X sues advertisers for boycott, app drops all ads from top subscription tier

Posted on by darion

Days after Elon Musk’s X announced it was suing an ad industry group for allegedly boycotting its service, the company is completely ditching ads from its top-tier subscription tier. On Wednesday evening, X announced its Premium+ subscription would now be “completely” ad-free, prompting some to wonder how the change would affect creator earnings as part of X’s ad revenue-sharing program.

Last year, the company formerly known as Twitter opened up its ad revenue-sharing program to global creators, allowing them to monetize their accounts through ads that appear in replies to their posts. That encouraged creators to post things that generate conversation, like memes and jokes, hot takes, controversial opinions, and more. X said there would be safeguards around what could be monetized in this way, and prevented creators from generating revenue from posts that included sexual content, violence, criminal activity, gambling, drugs, alcohol, and “get-rich-for-you” schemes, for example.

Despite the restrictions, the launch has had an impact on X’s content, with its algorithmic “For You” feed now serving up more of these viral posts, and some creators initially reporting making five- to six-figure profits from it. Other creators have been more cautious about X, saying the platform is still far from being a primary source of income compared to the opportunities offered by other social media apps.

X stated that creators can only share revenue from organic ad impressions displayed in replies to posts by users who are “verified” on the X platform, which requires a Premium or Premium+ subscription.

However, X’s Premium+ was already relatively ad-free, so this latest change may not have as big an impact as creators fear. Before the change, Premium+ subscribers didn’t see ads in X’s For You timeline, Following timeline, post replies, or profiles, though X warned that users may still “occasionally encounter sponsored content outside of X’s standard ad inventory.”

Meanwhile, Premium users on X (the mid-tier) saw 50% fewer ads in the “For You” and “Following” sections.

X owner Elon Musk highlighted the change to the Premium+ subscription in a post where he said, “Your time is worth it.”

The company has a checkered history with advertisers under Musk’s leadership. Last year, he told advertisers fleeing X over his controversial posts to “fuck off” during an onstage interview at DealBook. When advertisers took his advice and decided not to advertise on the platform, Musk sued them, claiming that the ad boycott was somehow illegal. Funnily enough, the same organization X is suing now, GARM (Global Alliance for Responsible Media), is the same one X touted as returning in July, posting that it was committed to security and “proud to be part of the GARM community.”

Given its near-term reliance on ad dollars, X’s ability to turn a profit could be questionable. However, Musk intends for X to eventually generate revenue in other ways, including by operating as a payments app — a change that is imminent, based on code references found in the web app. Unlike Twitter, Musk’s X also faces a lot of competition from other services, including Meta’s Threads, the open-source Mastodon, and startups like Bluesky, Spoutible, Spill, and others.