X Product Chief Blasts Top Influencer for Crypto Scam Promo: ‘Robbing Your Followers’

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‘Robbing Your Followers’: X Product Chief Blasts Top Influencer Over Crypto Scam Promo

Nikita Bier, a Product Director at X, publicly claimed that influencer Ian Miles Cheong was promoting fraudulent cryptocurrencies. Bier believes the drop in Cheong’s account engagement wasn’t due to technical issues, but rather to excessive spamming. This dispute happened shortly after X released details of its recommendation algorithm on GitHub, a move that received strong criticism and accusations of a lack of transparency from the crypto community, who felt Elon Musk hadn’t kept his promises.

The conflict started when popular blogger Ian Miles Cheong, who has 1.2 million followers, claimed X was quietly limiting how many people saw his posts. X’s representative, Bier, strongly disagreed, stating Cheong’s drop in views was a direct result of him switching from political discussion to heavily promoting cryptocurrency memes.

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— Ian Miles Cheong (@ianmiles) May 17, 2026

Bier believes creators typically see a drop in audience interaction when they engage in dishonest practices or take advantage of their followers.

Cheong deflected the accusations, claiming they were a distraction from issues with the platform itself. He also pointed out that Bier had previously supported BelieveApp and even created his own cryptocurrency tokens.

Why the new AI algorithm shrinks crypto influencer reach on X

This disagreement brought to light a bigger problem: how X’s code on GitHub works and how the platform’s new AI filters are really functioning. The platform recently added strong, automatic tools to monitor content, and this situation revealed how those tools are being used.

  • Grok AI Module: The neural network based on xAI’s Grok now deeply analyzes post context. Posts promoting questionable financial schemes, meme coins, and clickbait are automatically downranked for failing Brand Safety standards required by major advertisers.
  • Author Diversity Scorer: The algorithm artificially limits reach (attenuation) for an author’s subsequent posts if a previous post “went viral.” The system effectively demands pauses between posts and penalizes excessive activity.

This situation also fueled growing doubts within the crypto community. Users noted that Elon Musk hadn’t followed through on his pledge to update the algorithm’s code every month. The initial version launched in January 2026, but the code hasn’t been updated since.

Experts like Vitalik Buterin have pointed out significant problems with the publicly available version of the system. The exact way rankings are calculated is kept secret, and the code released to the public doesn’t appear to match the version actually being used.

Because of these changes, good crypto content is appearing less often in people’s feeds, with more political arguments and attention-grabbing headlines taking its place. Some people worry this makes the platform an easy target for attacks, where groups could falsely report and get reliable accounts suspended.

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2026-05-17 13:08