Months after Twitter owner Elon Musk announced that the platform would start sharing advertising revenue with creators, the program has finally launched.
A post from the official @Twitter handle revealed the change and confirmed that, to be eligible, users would need to be subscribed to Twitter Blue or Verified Organisations — the paid-for verification services that Musk introduced.
Creators would also need to have at least five million impressions on their posts in each of the last three months and pass a “human review” in accordance with the platform’s Creator Monetisation Standards. These standards maintain that users must feature an “authentic identity” on their profile and are not allowed to monetise content portraying, depicting or describing pornography or illegal activity, for example.
Right-wing blogger Ian Miles Cheong shared a screenshot from his Twitter app showing that he would receive US$16,259 (around AU$23,600) from the creator monetisation program.
It do be facts. pic.twitter.com/53B4Hf9tmL
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) July 13, 2023
The engagement requirements for Twitter’s new creator monetisation program are exceedingly high. TikTok’s Creator Fund, for example, requires users to have at least 10,000 followers and at least 100,000 video views across the last 30 days.
The bigger issue for Musk and Twitter might not be that they’re struggling to find creators to join the program amid declining user figures, it might be finding the money to pay them.
Twitter reportedly owes ex-employees some US$500 million (around AU$734 million) in severance pay following Musk’s scorched earth approach to the company’s workforce in the weeks following his takeover. Courtney McMillian, a former Twitter HR boss, filed a lawsuit against Twitter and Elon Musk alleging that “a fraction” of employees were correctly compensated for their work at the company.
The biggest threat to Twitter, beyond the hair-brained scheming of its owner, is Meta’s Threads. The new app has become the fastest-growing social media site in history. However, the company has no plans to monetise the app this year and is instead focusing on building an engaged user base and slowly adding features.
The choice for creators, then, is simple — add to the rapacious rancour of debate on Twitter by attracting five million views a month, or wait at least five months for Threads monetisation.
