Okay, we need to take a second to analyze the winners of X’s $1 million article competition, because while the results are likely as many would expect, in regards to topics that align with Elon’s perspective, the specific winners chosen do absolutely nothing to alter any perception about what X has become as a platform.
As a quick recap, last month, as part of a new push to get more creators posting more content to the app, and especially long-form content, in order to keep people reading (and feed more info into its xAI database), X announced that the top-performing article for January would win a $1 million cash prize.
Which is a big carrot, though even then, as I noted at the time, the challenge here would be writing for the X audience, and creating something that would resonate with users of the app.
You can take a guess at what topics would be more likely to resonate, based on broader coverage of X, and how Elon Musk has changed the platform formerly known as Twitter. And based on the winners, you’d be right.
Here’s the full list of winners in X’s inaugural $1 million article prize:
- The winner was an article on alleged government spending corruption via contracts with Deloitte, written by an X user with a history of posting racist commentary
- The runner-up looks at Trump’s tariff strategy, and how he’s using volatility as a level to acquire Greenland (X awarded the creator $250k)
- X gave special mention to a self-help article which looks at how to enhance your focus (X awarded the creator $250k)
X also gave four more creators $100k each for their contributions:
- An article about welfare fraud in Minnesota
- An article about the strategic value of the U.S. acquiring Greenland
- An article about how the West ended slavery
- An article about extreme weather patterns in the U.S.
So, yeah, all pretty much in alignment with Elon’s pet topics, and largely linked to right-wing views.
Nothing surprising, but it is interesting just how much this content skews towards the audience that you would expect on X, and underlines, once again, just how much closer the platform now is to Rumble or Truth Social, as opposed to more mainstream social platforms.
Which had always been Elon Musk’s aim, to amplify right-wing perspectives in order to counter the left-wing bias that Twitter, in his view, had. But it seems that balance may have swayed a little too far the other way, and now, X is more representative of extremist right-wing viewpoints than more balanced takes.
Which is why these are the most discussed articles, and what X sees as an alternative to mainstream media.
And I can see why X users feel like they’re being informed and educated by these takes, though I would question the partiality and academic rigor of at least some elements in these posts.
But overall, it’s as expected, providing a snapshot of what X users see as the most pressing issues of the day.
X hasn’t announced a second round of prizes for top articles, but it has suggested that it’s exploring further programs to encourage long-form posting.
