X's 'Creator Revenue Sharing Program' gets 'totally pwned' by Vietnamese click farm, lawsuit reveals

[demmiblue]

Exclusive: An eight-man crew operating out of a dingy office in downtown Hanoi, Vietnam, is accused of extracting payouts from X “by manufacturing the appearance of content engagement where none really exists.”

A Vietnamese click farm is accused of duping Elon Musk’s X out of a small fortune by exploiting apparently lax controls surrounding its “Creator Revenue Sharing Program” – an initiative touted by the world’s richest person as a purported way for premium users to “earn a living” through their activity on the site.

The eight-man crew operated out of a dingy office space in downtown Hanoi, where they “programmatically post[ed] computer-generated content” to a network of “inauthentic” X profiles set up using stolen identities “to engage in coordinated platform manipulation,” according to a federal lawsuit filed Thursday and obtained by The Independent.

It says these automated profiles would subsequently “‘like,’ ‘repost,’ and otherwise artificially engage with each other’s content, all for the purpose of deceiving X into paying out funds” based on what the company – which just last year enthusiastically touted a new “improved authentic engagements algorithm” – now claims were bogus clicks.

The “fraudulent scheme,” X’s complaint contends, extracted payouts from the Creator Revenue Sharing Program “by manufacturing the appearance of content engagement where none really exists.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/elon-musk-x-vietnam-engagement-farming-b2756948.html

“X’s complaint claims the alleged scam ‘has harmed [its] reputation and customer relationships by introducing low-quality content to the platform.’”

lol. lmao.

— shauna (@goldengateblond.bsky.social) 2025-05-28T11:28:27.829Z

[bucolic_frolic]

1. LOL Elmo the genius triumphs once again! ./nt

[UpInArms]

2. Stories like this

Warm the cockles of my heart

[tanyev]

3. Please excuse me as I snort with laughter.

[Scrivener7]

4. Dear DNC: hire these guys.

[k_buddy762]

5. Humans will always find a way

to beat the system.

[marble falls]

6. Sounds just like GOP gaming of laws. Are we sure they weren't Republican Viet Namese?

Last edited Wed May 28, 2025, 12:58 PM - Edit history (1)

[lapfog_1]

7. see Silicon Valley ( HBO )

Jun 26, 2016 — The Uptick is the tenth and final episode of Season 3, and the twenty-eighth episode overall. It originally aired on June 26, 2016

First aired almost 9 years ago... to save their company, Gerard hires an Indian based click farm with the remaining money from their first round investment to download their new platform and leave a few "impressions" in an effort to unlock the promised second round funding from their VC.