We’ve all seen them. Many of us have even been duped by them. But most of us haven’t considered exactly why some of X’s (formerly Twitter) most notable parody accounts do what they do.
A report by A.J. Perez of Front Office Sports on Tuesday highlighted why satire accounts like NBA Centel and Ballsack Sports are motivated by X’s new incentive structure that monetizes engagement.
Last year, X launched a monetization program that pays content creators who subscribe to X Premium based on the amount of engagement the account generates. The program, Perez suggests, is one of the reasons that satire aggregators like NBA Centel, who last month posted a fake LeBron James quote about rapper P Diddy’s arrest that went viral, are encouraged to push the envelope with their content.
LeBron comments on P Diddy getting arrested:
“It’s crazy, I was bumping to ‘Mo Money Mo Problem’ earlier today in the car and I had a weird feeling today was the day the feds will catch Diddy.”
(Via @ScoopB) pic.twitter.com/ujvOuJTqE3
— NBACentel (@TheNBACentel) September 17, 2024
Posts such as these have the potential to generate massive engagement on social media. On X specifically, the only line of defense against such posts is the Community Note, which displays a user-submitted fact-check on a given post and will demonetize any engagement generated from it for the account owner. However, many satire posts, including the James post, never get a Community Note at all, meaning they can be monetized.
The system obviously creates a perverse incentive structure where users are encouraged to create posts that will generate engagement, regardless of whether they have any basis in reality. And while accounts like NBA Centel and Ballsack Sports are transparent in their parody, some are not.
The trend has even landed celebrities and athletes themselves in hot water when they get duped. Last year, Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green responded to a fake quote from former Boston Celtics center Kevin Garnett that was posted by NBA Centel.
Kevin Garnett calls out Draymond Green 😳
“Draymond punching JP is like a senior punching a freshman who’s half his size and than walks around talking himself up as if he’s like that. Come try me Dray.”
(Via @shobasketball) pic.twitter.com/Q4kIM86FVQ
— NBACentel (@TheNBACentel) July 19, 2023
“I tried you when I was a Rookie KG, and you started talking to yourself like I wasn’t talking to you. What’s that like? The freshman picking on a senior citizen that’s double his size?” Green responded in a post he later deleted.
Given the profits to be had by running one of these accounts, it’s unlikely they’ll be going away anytime soon. “It’s almost amusing at this point to see the same patterns of misinformation play out, and still going strong,” the owner of the Ballsack Sports X account told Front Office Sports.
In the age of misinformation, it’s now incumbent upon the end user to determine what’s real and what’s fake. And if the last several years are any indication, that effort will not become any easier.