Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has launched a new "Paid Partnership" label for creators to clearly mark their sponsored posts. The feature, announced on Monday by the company's head of product, Nikitia Bier, is designed to improve authenticity and trust by distinguishing organic recommendations from paid promotions.
The built-in tool allows creators to toggle a "content disclose" setting when publishing a post, applying a label that appears directly below the content. This addresses a previous gap on the platform, where creators relied on hashtags like #ad or #paidpartnership to meet disclosure requirements set by regulators such as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Aligning with Industry Standards and Regulations
The move brings X in line with features long established on other platforms like Instagram, which introduced formal partnership labels after the FTC's 2017 warnings to influencers. "X's core value is providing an authentic pulse on humanity," wrote Bier in an announcement post. "While we want to encourage people to build their businesses on X, undisclosed promotions hurt the integrity of the product and lead people to distrust the content they read."
The label can be applied retroactively to existing posts, a functionality that accounts for instances where a creator might forget to disclose a partnership initially. This development is part of X's broader strategy to attract and retain content creators through various monetisation tools, including ad-revenue sharing and subscription features.
Context of X's Creator Ecosystem Challenges
Despite these efforts, X has historically struggled to compete with giants like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok for creator attention. The platform remains primarily associated with real-time news and public discourse. The new labelling system is seen as a step to make sponsored content creation more seamless and compliant, removing the need for what many consider outdated hashtag disclosures.
This update follows other recent platform changes focused on content authenticity. Last week, X restricted its API to prevent programmatic, AI-generated replies unless a user was directly mentioned, a move aimed at curbing spam and inauthentic engagement that could also misrepresent reactions to sponsored posts.
The introduction of Paid Partnership labels represents X's latest attempt to formalise its advertising ecosystem and provide clearer guidelines for the commercial activity it seeks to foster on its platform.