Yeah, this is probably going to upset a lot of Elon Musk’s acolytes on X.
Today, X has updated creator ad revenue share program documentation with a note that all participants will now need to submit a government-issued ID for verification.
As you can see in this note, participants in the revenue share initiative will have till July to go through X’s ID verification process, which requires you to take a selfie and submit a copy of a Government ID to be checked.
But it’s not going to be checked by an automated system, nor a human working at X HQ. It’ll actually go through X’s third party verification partner, Au10tix, which X has outsourced its ID verification process to.
Au10tix has been verifying X user profiles since September last year, as an added bonus for X Premium subscribers who want another marker of authenticity for their profile.
Subscribers don’t have to confirm their government ID, but they can if they want, which X says will also give them “prioritized support from X Services”.
But up till now, this wasn’t a requirement of X’s ad payouts, and evidently, that’s caused some issue, hence the change.
Which could relate to far right influencers and misinformation spreaders earning thousands from the program, or various U.S.-sanctioned entities that are also likely getting paid via the scheme.
Spammers and bots could also be the target, as the system, as it currently stands, would be paying them too, based on engagement.
Yet, regardless of the concerns, some X users will be none too pleased with the update.
X users are very keen to maintain a level of anonymity, and providing a government ID will raise their blood pressure, especially among the more conspiratorial elements.
What’s more, some X users are upset that Au10tix is an Israel-based company, which they’re concerned may misuse their personal data.
So basically you can expect this to cause some angst among some of the more passionate X communities. Though really, some form of ID confirmation for payments makes sense.
It’ll also likely become more of a consideration as X moves into more forms of payments, and maybe, this is just a precursor to that next stage. Which is still a while off, as X is in the process of obtaining money transmitter licenses in the U.S., but the eventual “everything app” plan involves X become a full payments, and banking platform.
And if that is to go ahead, ID verification will be a bigger requirement. So this was coming, one way or another, and now, X is launching the next stage.