One of X’s most notorious ragebaiters explains how the outrage business earned him $80,000—and why he’ll keep posting even as the creator model shifts

In June 2024, Robby Lefkowitz was sitting at his desk, working for a protein company and “bored,” when he decided to have some fun online.

Noticing that a bunch of X accounts were popping up, naming themselves after neighborhoods—East Village Guy, Williamsburg Wrangler—Lefkowitz decided to make one of his own.

He called himself Murray Hill Guy.

Two and a half years later, he has been doxxed, sued , reviled on the platform, and paid a little under $80,000 by Elon Musk’s social network for the privilege.

“I would say probably 80% [of the posts] I stand by,” Lefkowitz told Fortune, adding that the other 20% is meant to be a bit more provocative and “get the people going.” That 20% is the subject of a reckoning within X, which reached its endpoint this week.

On Sept.

7, X shut down Creator Revenue Sharing, the program that had paid posters based on impressions since July 2023, and replaced it with something called Original Content Rewards.

Original Content Rewards pays for unique views of posts by Premium subscribers on the Homepage timeline.

To get in, an account needs 500 verified followers and 500,000 of those verified Home timeline impressions over the prior 90 days, and it has to keep posting original content to stay in.

The new rules are trying to ban copied content, engagement solicitation and anything “potentially harmful,” calling the previous program “misaligned.” Lefkowitz and other creators who make money off X say the program didn’t invent the urge to post, but it did help change what ended up on the timeline.

The program marks an interesting shift, an admission that the way X paid its creators shaped what they posted, which meant provocation and aggregation.

Nikitia Bier, X’s ex-head of product, spent the spring playing whack-a-mole on the aggregator payouts and denouncing accounts by name.

He stepped down two days before the new program was announced.

Lefkowtiz was approved for the new program on the first day.