The policy change, announced by an executive of the Elon Musk-owned platform, targets what the company described as a threat to information authenticity amid the ongoing war pitting the US and Israel against Iran.

“During times of war, it is critical that people have access to authentic information on the ground,” X’s head of product Nikita Bier said, adding that current AI technologies make it “trivial to create content that can mislead people.”

X said Monday it would “continue to refine” its policies and product to ensure the platform “can be trusted during these critical moments.”

The new AI disclosure policy represents a notable pivot for a platform whose approach to content moderation has been heavily criticised since Musk completed his US$44 billion acquisition of Twitter – subsequently rebranded as X – in October 2022.

Since Musk’s takeover, X has largely sought to remove its policies against misinformation deeming them censorship.

Under the new rules, repeat offenders face permanent suspension from the Creator Revenue Sharing programme, which pays eligible users a share of advertising revenue generated by their posts.

Violations will be flagged through Community Notes – the platform’s crowd-sourced fact-checking system – as well as through metadata and other technical signals embedded in AI-generated content.