by Elon Musk Twitter has been accused of not pay hundreds of millions of dollars in severance pay to laid off workers. Now, under a new ad revenue sharing program, the company has just doled out millions to high-profile Twitter users, including controversial right-wing figure Andrew Tate and left-leaning twin brothers Ed and Brian Krassenstein.
Twitter on Thursday announced the ad revenue share program for creators, initially by invitation only. The company said that eligible creators will be paid a portion of ad revenue from responses to their posts. “This is part of our effort to help people earn a living directly on Twitter,” the company said in a statement. blog post about the program
Musk, who controls Twitter, formerly saying initial ad-sharing payments to creators would total $5 million, cumulative “since I first promised to do it in February.” Musk himself is eligible for a share of the proceeds from the show; the tech mogul tweeted who “gave my share to the creator’s payment fund.”
Twitter launched the program “to an initial group that will be invited to accept payment,” the company said. “We will be launching an application process for ad revenue share soon.”
Among those in the Twitter payment group was Andrew Tate, who tweeted that he received $20,379 under the new program. Tate wrote that “every penny” of the proceeds will go towards his Tate Pledge charitable initiatives. The former professional kickboxer, who once tweeted that women should “undress [sic] some responsibility” for having been raped, last year she affirmed tech platforms banned him because of what he said were “traditional masculine values.” Tate has 7.1 million followers on Twitter; her Twitter account had been banned in 2017 and was reinstated after Musk acquired the social network. Last month Tate was accused of crimes of rape and human trafficking in Romania. Earlier this week, Tate and his brother Tristan sued a Florida woman and others, alleging they conspired to falsely accuse the Tates in the Romania case, AP reported.
Also receiving payments from Twitter were Brian Krassenstein ($24,305) and Ed Krassenstein ($24,877), entrepreneurs who originally rose to prominence on the platform with their relentless anti-Trump tweets. “Now I will stop promoting border crossings and start promoting Tesla vehicles”, Ed Krassenstein. joked in a tweet. “I figured they would pay me around $500 or more over the last 4-5 months. I thought it would be pennies on the dollar compared to what George Soros pays me (sarcasm).”
In 2019, the Krassentein brothers were banned by Twitter for allegedly using fake accounts to expand their reach (which denied). Following Musk’s acquisition of the company last fall, Twitter reinstated its accounts in December.
Other Twitter users who shared ad revenue payments included podcaster and political commentator Benny Johnson ($9,546), Ashley St. Clair, a writer for the political satire site Babylon Bee ($7,153), and an anonymous account called End Wokeness ($ 10,419).
Musk said Twitter’s ad revenue share isn’t exactly per impression, tweeting: “It’s how many ads were shown to other verified users that matter.”
According to Twitter, to be considered eligible for ad revenue sharing, creators must be Twitter Blue (or affiliated with a verified organization); Have at least 5 million impressions on your posts in each of the last three months; and pass “human review” for compliance with Twitter’s creator monetization standards.
By Twitter policiescontent that is not eligible for monetization includes pornography, “content that displays sex toys, nudity, or implied sexual acts,” and content that depicts or describes “criminal behavior” including “human or animal abuse, or advocacy of harm to humans.” or animals; human trafficking; and piracy and copyright infringement.”
Twitter’s Creator Ads Revenue Sharing program will be available in all countries where Stripe supports payments, the company said.
