(NAIROBI, KENYA) – Social media platforms are tightening content monetisation rules to favour original material, a shift that threatens the earnings of thousands of Kenyan creators who built audiences by reposting trending content, memes and news from other sources.
X announced this week that it is winding down its existing Revenue Sharing programme and replacing it with a new system called Original Content Rewards. The new model is designed to reward creators who bring original ideas, expertise, reporting, creativity and commentary to the platform.
X said qualifying content will include original reporting and analysis, photos and videos created by the user, as well as memes and graphics designed by the creator. Commentary, which refers to posts reacting to or giving opinions about other posts on X, will still qualify, but only where creators add significant original value.
The company said that if content regularly incorporates material created by others, creators will need to contribute meaningful original value for it to qualify under the original content guidelines. Content copied from another account, downloaded from another platform and re-uploaded, or reposted without substantial transformation will be excluded from monetisation.
The changes are part of X’s effort to address long standing complaints about users sharing low value provocative content to boost metrics, also known as engagement farming, plagiarism, content theft and accounts that rely heavily on reposting viral material.
X also introduced stricter conduct requirements. Creators seeking payouts must avoid using bots or automated tools to inflate engagement, refrain from posting misleading content and stop repeatedly asking followers to like, repost or otherwise boost engagement metrics.
YouTube also announced this week that new creators will face significantly higher thresholds before they can begin earning money from advertising and subscriptions. Starting February next year, creators will need at least 8,000 qualified watch hours over the previous 12 months or 20 million qualified Shorts views over 90 days to qualify for monetisation.
This is an increase from the current requirements of 4,000 watch hours or 10 million views on the platform’s Shorts vertical video tab. The Google-owned platform said the changes are necessary to keep pace with its rapid growth. YouTube Shorts now generate more than 200 billion daily views globally, while viewers spend more than a billion hours watching YouTube on television every day.
The update is likely to reduce the number of creators entering the monetisation programme by requiring them to demonstrate larger and more consistent audiences before earning revenue.
The announcements by the two tech giants follow a similar move by Instagram. In May, the Meta-owned photo and video sharing platform announced a crackdown on unoriginal content, saying accounts that repeatedly repost content created by others would be less likely to appear in recommendations shown to users who do not already follow them.
Since recommendation algorithms are one of the most important drivers of audience growth, reduced visibility can directly affect a creator’s ability to attract new followers and generate income.
The changes show how major platforms are increasingly prioritising creators who produce original content over those who primarily aggregate, recycle or republish material from elsewhere.
The shift has significant implications for Kenya’s creator economy, which has expanded rapidly since the Covid-19 pandemic, creating new income opportunities for influencers, content creators, comedians and digital publishers.
Beyond platform payouts from Meta, X and Google, many creators now earn up to millions of shillings a year through sponsored content, affiliate marketing, product placements and direct sales of goods and services.
According to a recent study by Nairobi-based research and analytics firm OdipoDev, Kenya’s leading social media influencers earned a combined KES296 million ($2.3 million / £1.8 million) from brand-sponsored posts in 2025, contributing to an estimated KES1.07 billion ($8.2 million / £6.5 million) in total creator economy payouts.
That growth has encouraged the emergence of entire business models built around audience aggregation, including pages that curate viral videos, repost memes, summarise news from media houses or repurpose content from other creators.
Accounts that have relied heavily on such content will now find it hard to qualify for monetisation, maintain visibility or access platform generated revenue. Even where creators retain their audiences, being de-monetised or having their reach reduced will be a major financial blow.