Indian woman complains of $30 payout from X. Nikita Bier says ‘I think we overpaid’

An X account purportedly belonging to an Indian woman was suspended after it complained about not earning enough through the platform’s Creator Revenue Sharing program. The incident unfolded when the account, apparently belonging to a woman named Vaishali Pandit, tagged X’s product head Nikita Bier in a post and complained about the low payout.Nikita Bier (R) serves as the Head of Product at Elon Musk-owned X (formerly Twitter)In her post, Vaishali Pandit said she had only received $30.50 as payout for the period between January 31 to February 14.The X Creator Revenue Sharing program is a monetisation scheme that lets users earn money from the content they post on the Elon Musk-owned social media platform. In simple terms, creators who meet certain requirements — such as having many followers, millions of post views, and a paid X Premium subscription — can receive a share of revenue generated from engagement with their posts.(Also read: 21-year-old reveals how much he earns per month posting on X: ‘More than average campus placement’)X account suspendedHowever, complaining about the low payout backfired for the Indian content creator, whose account was soon suspended.Nikita Bier, head of product at X, shared a video showing how the account belonging to Vaishali Pandit had repeatedly posted just one thing — “Jai Mata Di” — several times. Bier then sarcastically posted that instead of underpaying, the platform had probably overpaid the creator.“I think we overpaid,” Bier wrote.Some time later, the Vaishali Pandit X account was suspended.It is not clear whether the account actually belonged to a woman named Vaishali, was a bot, or was a person pretending to be a woman. Public opinion leaned towards the last option, and the incident soon sparked a debate around whether it was fair to have the account suspended.“A creator with 70K followers got a $30.52 payout from Jan 31 – March 13 and tags Nikita that she’s being underpaid. Nikita says she’s overpaid and suspends the account. Fair moderation or too harsh?” asked X user Joshua.“A catfish tagged Nikita for low payout. Nikita suspended his account so that he doesn’t cry about payout anymore,” another posted.“She wanted more payout with this catfish account,” a user added.(Also read: Pakan man hacked 31 accounts on X to post fake AI videos during US-Iran war)Earlier this month, Bier had announced changes to X’s revenue sharing program. He said the platform is tightening enforcement against AI-generated war media posted without disclosure.Under the new rules, users who post AI-generated videos of armed conflict without labelling them as such will be barred from the platform’s Creator Revenue Sharing program for 90 days. Repeat violations could result in permanent removal from the program.