The platform’s updated creator rules tighten the compliance net around fintech and betting marketing, signalling a sharper divide between regulated advertising and influencer-led promotion in Europe.
X (formerly known as Twitter) has barred financial services, crypto, and gambling firms from using its ‘Paid Partnership’ tool in the UK, the European Union, and Australia.
Under updated Paid Partnerships rules, creators in these jurisdictions can no longer publish organic posts promoting loans, investment services, cryptoassets, buy now pay later products or gambling services where a commercial arrangement exists and the post is labelled as a paid partnership.
The prohibition also extends to lotteries, sports betting, and other gambling-related products.
“While we want to encourage people to build their businesses on X, undisclosed promotions hurt the integrity of the product and lead people to distrust the content they read on X,” said Nikita Bier, chief product officer at X.
The move places some of the most compliance-sensitive verticals squarely outside X’s creator-led monetisation framework at a time when regulators across Europe are intensifying scrutiny of financial promotions and online gambling advertising.
Financial promotions squeezed out of creator economy
For payments and crypto firms, the restriction is a significant change. The new policy means:
- Crypto exchanges cannot use X’s Paid Partnership label for influencer-led campaigns in the UK or EU.
- BNPL providers cannot run organic creator promotions under a formal paid partnership structure.
- Investment platforms and lending products are similarly excluded.
Financial services content itself is not banned from the platform, nor are formal paid ads necessarily prohibited under X’s separate Advertising Policies. However, the specific organic creator-partnership route is now closed in these regions.
This distinction matters as influencer-led campaigns have become a key acquisition channel for fintechs and crypto platforms, particularly among younger demographics that are difficult to reach through traditional financial advertising.
In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority’s financial promotions regime has already tightened the rules around crypto marketing, requiring clear risk warnings and restrictions on incentives. X’s policy appears to go a step further by removing the paid influencer route entirely within its native disclosure framework.
The effect is to push financial brands toward either fully regulated ad placements or purely organic, non-compensated commentary, reducing the grey area that has historically surrounded influencer promotions.
Gambling brands face parallel partnership restrictions
For the gambling industry, the policy has similar implications. Sports betting operators and other gambling firms are now explicitly excluded from using Paid Partnership promotion in the UK and EU. This closes off a channel that many operators have used to amplify odds boosts, sign-up offers, and event-driven campaigns through creator networks.
The UK has already seen sustained debate over gambling advertising exposure, particularly in sport. While this policy does not represent a blanket advertising ban, it does signal that X is taking a more conservative stance on influencer-driven gambling promotion in highly regulated markets.
Operators will still be able to explore traditional paid ads where permitted, but influencer-style organic collaborations carrying platform-endorsed “Paid Partnership” labelling are no longer available.
Risk management or regulatory alignment?
The UK, EU, and Australia all operate robust financial and gambling regulatory frameworks, with active enforcement around digital promotions. By contrast, the global policy does not universally prohibit financial services or gambling. Instead, X has applied targeted regional exclusions.
Influencer marketing in finance and gambling has attracted regulatory intervention across Europe, particularly around misleading promotions, inadequate disclosures, and the targeting of vulnerable consumers.
By removing the Paid Partnership pathway in these sectors, X reduces its exposure to potential enforcement risk tied to creator content that may not meet local advertising standards. The platform also makes clear that Paid Partnership rules are distinct from its Advertising Policies, creating a two-tier system:
- Organic, creator-led commercial posts: subject to strict sector exclusions.
- Formal paid advertisements: governed separately.
A tightening creator economy
The update forms part of a broader trend across social platforms toward stricter governance of financial and gambling content.
For crypto firms already navigating MiCA in the EU and tightened financial promotion rules in the UK, the loss of a mainstream influencer channel adds another compliance layer. For gambling operators, particularly those active in sport, it reinforces the steady narrowing of promotional space.
X has not framed the change as a sector crackdown and has instead presented it as a compliance measure within its Paid Partnership framework.
