The saturation of large X accounts built almost entirely on recycled video clips has become impossible to ignore. Many of these accounts brand themselves as "creators," but they merely lift original reporting, strip attribution, repackage it, and monetize engagement as if the content were their own.
Elon Musk and X product head Nikita Bier have zeroed in on this issue. X is now demonetizing repeat offenders while redirecting impressions and revenue to true originators. For genuine creators producing original reporting, analysis, and commentary, it's a long-overdue reset.
Disclose.tv Gets the Hammer
The latest high-profile casualty is Disclose.tv (nearly 2 million followers). The account allegedly lifted spaceflight reporter Adam Bernstein's dramatic video of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket exploding on the launchpad, cropped the watermark, and reposted it for engagement.
Bernstein called them out: "This video was shot by me as part of my coverage for @SpaceflightNow. It appears you have removed our watermark - please credit us properly."
Bier jumped in, praising the original footage and confirming the penalty: "Great video - sorry this happened. Creator has been deactivated from monetization for cropping out attribution."
Mario Nawfal's Revenue Slash and the Musk Unfollow
Just days earlier, Bier publicly warned serial aggregator Mario Nawfal after he reuploaded an ABC News clip instead of using proper Quote or Video Reshare: "Please do not reupload the author’s video: use Quote or Video Reshare. Your revenue was reduced by 90% last cycle and we’re running out of room to reduce it more."
Elon Musk unfollowed Nawfal shortly after, sparking widespread speculation.
Massimo Fracas
One of the most dramatic spats involved popular science curator Massimo (@Rainmaker1973), who has 4.3 million followers. Bier dropped the hammer with receipts:
Rainmaker1973 (Massimo) fired back - accusing Bier of unfair treatment, defending watermark cropping as standard practice, claiming selective enforcement, and alleging bullying via Community Notes and deboosting. He announced shifting to a subscriber/donation model and hinted at potentially deleting the account, framing himself as a victim of "abuse of power" and "public execution."
The exchange lit up X with heated replies, hypocrisy callouts (noting ViralRushX also aggregates from elsewhere), and memes celebrating the "public execution."
Broader Sweep and Burner Schemes
Other accounts hit include @bpthaber (~1.6M followers) for alleged burner/shield tactics — using secondary accounts to post stolen videos stamped with the main brand to dodge detection. Bier's team is now actively detecting programmatic re-uploads, watermark stripping, and impression hijacking at scale.
Jason Calacanis summed up the originals' frustration: "The crazy part, is these accounts are getting paid to steal peoples content - which will make ABC give up on the platform eventually."
These very public spats highlight X's aggressive pivot: rewarding originality over volume and manipulation to clean up the platform, boost trust, improve timeline quality, and attract more substantive journalism.