X says top accounts steal videos from other users as it announces new video tools

**Nikita Bier**, **head of product** at **X**, revealed on **Monday** that a significant portion of videos shared by **top accounts** are stolen from original creators, sometimes up to **5 years** after first going viral. Reported by **The Verge**, the admission arrived alongside an announcement that **X** is launching **new video tools**. **Bier** emphasized the scale of video consumption on the network, noting that video content now accounts for **close to half the impressions on X**.

From a product mechanics standpoint, video rendering and feed distribution generate **close to half the impressions on X**, making video pipeline efficiency essential for overall platform engagement. The persistence of unauthorized video re-uploads—often recirculated **5 years** after initial publication—highlights how **top accounts** exploit algorithmic feeds by repurposing high-performing historical media. The introduction of **new video tools** points to structural modifications in how video assets are ingested, identified, and prioritized within recommendation pipelines.

For system engineers and platform developers, this situation highlights the technical friction between automated recommendation engines and content attribution systems. When **top accounts** leverage legacy viral media to harvest impressions, recommendation systems inadvertently incentivize content scraping over original production. Building effective **new video tools** requires engineering teams to implement media matching algorithms, accurate origin-tracking metadata, and impression-attribution systems that properly credit original uploads.

Within the competitive landscape of digital media platforms, maintaining high user engagement relies heavily on media formats, as demonstrated by video driving **close to half the impressions on X**. However, platforms face a market dilemma when top-tier distribution relies on unauthorized copies of media published up to **5 years** prior. The deployment of **new video tools** by **X** reflects a broader industry effort to protect creator ownership while preserving the total volume of video impressions across feed surfaces.

Moving forward, engineering teams and product strategists should monitor how **X** integrates its **new video tools** into the existing feed architecture. Key metrics to track include changes in distribution reach for **top accounts** relying on curated media, the efficacy of automated attribution mechanisms for videos originally posted **5 years** ago, and whether creator protections can be enforced without reducing the overall share where video represents **close to half the impressions on X**.