How does Twitter generate "fake traffic"?

Earlier this month, CZ and Peter Schiff had an interesting "Bitcoin vs. Gold" debate at Binance Blockchain Week. After watching the video of the debate, I browsed related discussion tweets on X, and while reading, I suddenly noticed a question...

On YouTube, Binance's official account has 1.22 million subscribers, but the debate video only garnered 160,000 views and 5,358 likes.

A simple search for related tweets on X, such as the one shown in the image below, reveals that this X account only has about 250,000 followers, but has received 517,000 views and over 4,100 likes:

Such a data discrepancy is quite significant. So, is Twitter (X) creating "fake traffic"?

Is the page view calculation "exaggerated"?

Contrary to our expectations, X's view count is much more lenient—every tweet that appears on a logged-in user's device screen is counted as one view. In other words, even if a user doesn't notice a tweet at all, as long as X's algorithm recommends it to their timeline, even if they scroll down without looking at it, it still counts as one view.

This "swipe away +1" view count applies not only to the timeline of recommended content, but also to search results and viewing all historical tweets of a specific account.

At the same time, this counting is not "unique," meaning that for the same user, if the same tweet appears on the screen multiple times, the views will be accumulated.

Therefore, if you open the creator center of an X account, you will find that the term used for pageviews is "impressions" instead of "views". X's pageview calculation is mainly used to measure the exposure of posts, rather than actual engagement (such as likes, shares or comments), although the latter can better reflect the actual interaction.

So, is this considered "exaggerated"? It is somewhat so, but it's hard to say.

Let's compare it horizontally with other social media platforms. Threads' view count calculation method is almost identical to X, mainly focusing on the post's exposure rather than actual interaction.

However, YouTube and TikTok, which primarily feature videos, immediately raise the bar. For traditional long videos, YouTube requires a viewing time of over 30 seconds to be considered a valid view. The scale of long video content is obviously much larger compared to short tweets, so requiring a viewing time of over 30 seconds is reasonable. TikTok, with its short videos, is not much different from X, especially its autoplay recommendation page, which, like X, adds one view simply because the video appears on the user's device screen, even if the user swipes away without watching.

The purpose of "exaggeration" is to better reflect the "exposure" of the content, so why do we do that?

Actually, the ability for everyone to view a tweet's view count is an update that came after Musk acquired Twitter. Previously, only the poster could see the tweet's view count. Musk himself tweeted the reason for this update:

"Twitter is far more active than it appears, because 90% of Twitter users only view but don't tweet, like, or comment."

In the tweet above, Musk also mentioned, "This is just normal practice for videos." At that time, Twitter had just been acquired by Musk, followed by massive layoffs and the controversy surrounding Twitter's "blue V" paid subscriptions. The sarcastic remark "Twitter is dead" was rampant at the time.

It's hard to say that Musk's decision to release pageview data at the time wasn't driven by a desire to "fight back," especially since even his own AI, Grok, said so.

This "exaggeration" may not just be our individual perception. According to a Yahoo news report, a Twitter employee previously stated that the reason for not releasing view count data is that "it's difficult to determine whether a tweet has actually been read or simply swiped past by users."

Clearly, defining whether a tweet has been "effectively read" is difficult in itself. While Musk certainly had an intention to "retaliate," he was also telling the truth. For tweets, this simplification of view metrics is actually necessary, because many tweets (such as memes) don't require deep user engagement; instead, they focus on the widest part of the funnel—attracting as many users as possible.

Prioritizing exposure over deep engagement, and high visibility over deep reach, is what X and Musk prioritize.

Finding "authenticity" amidst "exaggeration"

Of course, if creators only pursue high visibility, they may fall into another extreme—prioritizing quantity over quality. If this happens, Twitter will eventually decline due to low-quality content.

Therefore, page views are not the only core metric creators should pursue. The vast majority of creators who work hard to create content also aim to monetize it. For creators, income is a measurable reward that incentivizes the creation of high-quality content. Page views are like rest stops in a marathon—congratulations, you've already covered a significant distance and are ahead of many others; keep up the good work!

To generate commercial revenue, increasing page views is the first step. However, even with high page views, if the content doesn't attract advertisers—for example, by relying on sensitive topics that appeal to a specific audience or by jumping on trending topics in the short term—the revenue will still be zero.

On Twitter, "creator revenue sharing" is clearly the compass for finding "authenticity" amidst the "exaggeration." To measure an account's influence, creator revenue sharing is far more important than views, because views are merely a threshold and one of the indicators that helps creators produce more viral content in order to receive Twitter's creator revenue sharing.

Twitter launched its Ads Revenue Sharing program in July 2023. Former Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino revealed in May 2024 that over $50 million in Ads Revenue Sharing had already been paid out to creators.

To receive a share of creator revenue, you must first meet certain criteria: verify your identity, become a Twitter Premium member, have 500 Premium members as followers, and accumulate at least 5 million views within 3 months.

But as we mentioned above, building up views is just the beginning. Creator revenue sharing is calculated based on verified (Premium members) engagement with tweets (such as likes and replies), while also taking into account the impact of different content types, such as articles, videos, Spaces, and live streams.

Therefore, on Twitter, we can see creators with 330,000 followers earning over $2,000 a month:

You can also see that a creator with only 13,000 followers earns just over $1,000 a month:

Last October, Twitter officially announced that creator revenue sharing would no longer be based on advertising revenue appearing in the comments section, but rather on Twitter Premium subscription revenue. This move was intended to encourage more high-quality creators to emerge—let's grow the pie together; the more people pay Twitter, the more we pay creators.

In November of this year, Twitter launched a new feature called "Bangers," which periodically selects high-quality tweets based on their actual engagement and awards the creators' accounts with a "Bangers" badge. This "Tweet Hall of Fame"-like feature provides us with yet another basis for finding "authenticity" amidst the "exaggeration."

Conclusion

Perhaps our present moment best proves the point that "courage is the most important quality for success." The first step for a creator is to "courageously express themselves," and this is also the core quality of a qualified creator.

In an era where live-streaming e-commerce and social media have quietly transformed the work landscape for years, we all say, "Traffic equals money." But the first step to making money is precisely the increasing number of views behind the screen, and by bravely expressing yourself, you've already put yourself on the starting line.

Now that you've seen how Twitter creates "fake traffic," will you start creating your own real traffic from today?