X Sues Two Bitcoin Influencers Over Bot Army That Milked Creator Payouts — SkimNews
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- X sued Vivek Kumar Sen, Zamyang Sherpa, and unnamed others at London's High Court on September 17, alleging a six-account bot network siphoned at least £207,384 ($278,000) from Creator Revenue Sharing between July 2023 and September 2026.
- James Burnham, X and xAI's general counsel, confirmed the filing Sunday, writing that the platform 'will act forcefully to protect our platform and the earnings of genuine creators' against coordinated inauthentic behavior.
- The scheme allegedly worked through synchronized posting: accounts like @Vivek4real_, @saylordocs, and @TrendingBitcoin cross-posted identical Bitcoin content within seconds and liked each other's tweets to inflate engagement metrics.
- Creator Revenue Sharing, launched by Elon Musk in 2023, required X Premium, 5 million impressions over three months, and 500 verified followers to qualify for ad-revenue payouts — thresholds the bot network allegedly gamed.
- Stripe accounts linked to the payouts carried mismatched identities: one profile listed a 'Stefan Mann,' but the bank account and email traced back to Sen, with both men allegedly based in Preston, England.
- X shut down Creator Revenue Sharing on September 7, ten days before filing suit, and replaced it with Original Content Rewards, which explicitly excludes 'artificially generated' engagement from payouts.
- The complaint alleges deceit, unjust enrichment, unlawful means conspiracy, and constructive trust — seeking the $278,000 back plus damages, interest, legal costs, and £75,000 in investigation expenses under case number BL-2026-001161.
- X had already drawn years of complaints that Creator Revenue Sharing rewarded reposting over original work, and separately sued a bribery network tied to banned crypto-scam accounts last year.
Why it matters: The lawsuit exposes how X's flagship creator-payout program was structurally vulnerable to coordinated manipulation for three years before the company shut it down, and X now wants the $278,000 back plus £75,000 in investigative costs — signaling a shift from platform-led payouts to a stricter Original Content Rewards model that excludes artificially generated engagement.
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