Okay, we have to take a second to investigate the winners of X’s $1 million article competitors, as a result of whereas the outcomes are possible as many would count on, with regard to matters that align with Elon’s perspective, the precise winners chosen do completely nothing to change any notion about what X has grow to be as a platform.

As a fast recap, final month, as a part of a brand new push to get extra creators posting extra content material to the app, and particularly long-form content material, in an effort to hold folks studying (and feed extra information into its xAI database), X introduced that the top-performing article for January would win a $1 million money prize.

Which is a giant carrot, although even then, as I famous on the time, the problem right here could be writing for the X viewers, and creating one thing that may resonate with customers of the app.

You may take a guess at what matters could be extra prone to resonate, based mostly on broader protection of X, and the way Elon Musk has modified the platform previously generally known as Twitter. And based mostly on the winners, you’d be proper.

Right here’s the full checklist of winners in X’s inaugural $1 million article prize:

  • The winner was an article on alleged authorities spending corruption by way of contracts with Deloitte, written by an X person with a historical past of posting racist commentary
  • The runner-up seems at Trump’s tariff technique, and the way he’s utilizing volatility as a degree to amass Greenland (X awarded the creator $250k)
  • X gave particular point out to a self-help article which seems at tips on how to improve your focus (X awarded the creator $250k)

X additionally gave 4 extra creators $100k every for his or her contributions:

  • An article about welfare fraud in Minnesota
  • An article in regards to the strategic worth of the U.S. buying Greenland   
  • An article about how the West ended slavery
  • An article about excessive climate patterns within the U.S.

So, yeah, all just about in alignment with Elon’s pet matters, and largely linked to right-wing views.

Nothing shocking, however it’s attention-grabbing simply how a lot this content material skews in direction of the viewers that you’d count on on X, and underlines, as soon as once more, simply how a lot nearer the platform now’s to Rumble or Reality Social, versus extra mainstream social platforms.

Which had at all times been Elon Musk’s purpose, to amplify right-wing views in an effort to counter the left-wing bias that Twitter, in his view, had. However plainly stability might have swayed a bit too far the opposite method, and now, X is extra consultant of extremist right-wing viewpoints than extra balanced takes.

Which is why these are probably the most mentioned articles, and what X sees as an alternative choice to mainstream media.

And I can see why X customers really feel like they’re being knowledgeable and educated by these takes, although I’d query the fondness and educational rigor of not less than some parts in these posts.

However total, it’s as anticipated, offering a snapshot of what X customers see as probably the most urgent problems with the day.

X hasn’t introduced a second spherical of prizes for high articles, however it has urged that it’s exploring additional packages to encourage long-form posting.