Some of the users of X who spend their days publishing content infested with election misinformation, AI-generated images, and unfounded conspiracy theories reported that they were getting paid "thousands of dollars" by the social network.

The BBC identified networks of dozens of accounts that re-share each other's content multiple times a day - including a mix of true, unfounded, false, and faked material - to boost their reach, and therefore revenue on the site.
Several say earnings from their own and other accounts range from a couple of hundred to thousands of dollars.

They also claim to facilitate sharing of each other's posts on forums and group chats. "It's a way of trying to help each other out," said one user.
Many of these groups are pro-Donald Trump, while others are pro-Kamala Harris, and then of course, there are the independent groups. Several of these profiles-which they say are not affiliated with any official campaign-have been contacted by US politicians, including congressional candidates, looking for supportive posts.

On 9 October, X updated its policies so that the payments made to eligible accounts with a significant reach are calculated based on the amount of engagement by premium users - likes, shares, and comments - rather than the number of ads under posts.

Many social media sites allow members to earn money from their posts or to share sponsored content. However, many also have policies that enable them to de-monetize or suspend a profile that posts misinformation. X doesn't have guidelines on misinformation in the same way.

Whereas it has an overwhelmingly smaller constituency than some sites, X does have a tremendous influence in the political sphere. It does beg the question whether X is encouraging those belonging to its user base to make provocative claims - no matter their veracity - at such a sensitive point in US politics.

The BBC assessed the approximate earnings reported by some of these X users against the amount they should have received based on the number of views, followers, and interactions they had with their other profiles and verified the true nature of these claims.

Some of these profiles aggregated in these networks posted false claims about elections, which had already been proven to be false by other sources, and extreme, unsubstantiated accusations of child abuse and sexual molestation of the candidates running for president and vice-president.

In addition to the above, false and misleading posts from X have also spread over on to other social media platforms, including those with larger viewerships, like Facebook and TikTok.

For example, a user with a very small following claimed that an image supporting this storyhe said that Kamala Harris had worked at McDonald's when she was youngwas manipulated. Subsequent users circulated unfettered claims-evidence-free-that the Democratic Party was Photoshopping pictures of their candidate.

Rumors from X regarding the July assassination attempt on Donald Trump were similarly spread elsewhere on social media sites. 

X wouldn't comment on whether or not the site is encouraging users to post this way, and would not accommodate an interview request with owner Elon Musk either.

'It's become a lot easier to make money'
Freedom Uncut's studio where he spends his days creating content, streaming and recording videos, is festooned with fairy lights in the shape of the Stars and Stripes. He says he is an independent, but would rather Donald Trump becomes president than Kamala Harris.

Free-as his friends call him-proclaims that he spends up to 16 hours a day in his lair posting on X, interacting with the network of dozens of content creators he's a part of and sharing AI-generated pictures. He refused to give out his full name or real identity, citing that members of his family have been exposed online and are being threatened.

He's hardly one of the most vitriolic posters, but has agreed to see me and explain how these networks on X work.

He says he has picked up 11 million views since he started posting regularly on the US election over the past few months. He pulls a few up on the screen as we chat at his home in Tampa, Florida.

Some are obviously satire - Donald Trump rendered like a character in The Matrix as he disregards bullets, or President Joe Biden as a dictator. Other AI images are less fantastical - including an image of somebody on the roof of his flooded home as fighter jets fly by, with the comment: "Remember that politicians don't care about you on November 5th."

The picture recalls Mr Trump's statement that after Hurricane Helene, there were "no helicopters, no rescue" of people in North Carolina. The claim has been contested by the North Carolina National Guard, which said it rescued hundreds of people in 146 flight missions.

According to Freedom Uncut, he thinks his images are "art" and would start a "conversation". "Not trying to fool anybody" on the fact that he "can do so much more by using AI".

He says he was able to monetize his profile and can now make in the "low thousands" monthly on X: "I think it's become a lot easier for people to make money.

He adds that some users he knows have been making more than five figures and claims he could corroborate this by seeing the reach of their posts: "It's at that point it really does become a job."

He says it is the "controversial" stuff that tends to get the most views - and compares this to "sensationalist" traditional media.

While he shares "provocative stuff", he says it's "usually based in some version of reality". But he implies other profiles he sees are only too happy to share posts they know not to be true. "That's an easy money-maker," he says.

Freedom Uncut dismisses concerns about false claims influencing the election; indeed, that the government "spreads more misinformation than the rest of the internet combined".

He adds that it's "very common" for local politicians to reach out to accounts like his on X for an endorsement. Some even offered to appear with him on live streams and asked him to work on memes, AI images, and artwork for them.
 
Could any of these posts - misleading or not - have a tangible impact this election?

I believe that you're seeing that now. I believe that much of the Trump support comes from that, he said.

In the view of Freedom Uncut, "there is more trust in independent media" - accounts posting AI-generated images and disinformation, for example - than in "some traditional media companies".

'No way to get to the truth'
Head-to-head with the pro-Trump accounts Freedom Uncut describes are profiles like Brown Eyed Susan, who has more than 200,000 followers on X.

She is part of a network of "die-hard" accounts posting content multiple times every hour in support of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. While she uses her first name, she does not share her surname, which comes in for threats and abuse.

Talking to me from Los Angeles, Susan said she never in a million years thought that she would make any money from her posts — or for her account's reach to explode. Sometimes she posts and re-shares more than 100 messages a day — and her individual posts sometimes reach more than two million users each.

She says she only earns through her posts because she was awarded a blue tick, which marks paid users on the site and some prominent accounts. "I didn't ask for it. I can't hide it, and I can't return it. So I clicked on monetise," she tells me, estimating she can make a couple of hundred dollars a month.

Besides policy posts, some of her most popular posts - viewed more than three million times - promoted unsubstantiated and false conspiracy theories that claim July's assassination attempt was faked by Donald Trump.

She concedes the murderer and one of the people in the audience are deceased, but she's got some very pertinent questions about the injuries and security lapses of Donald Trump, and also whether everything that has happened has actually been investigated.

"There's no way to get to the truth in this. And if they want to call it conspiratorial, they can," she says.

She also posts memes, some of which use AI, targeting the Republican hopeful. Several more convincing examples make him look older or ill. She says these "illustrate his current condition."
Others make him look like a dictator. She notes that all her images are "obvious" fakes.

She says politicians, including congressional candidates, have reached out to her for support, and she tries to "spread as much awareness" as she can for them.

'They want it to be real'
After the controversy over whether Kamala Harris had ever worked at McDonald's, the doctored image of her in the fast food chain's uniform is shared on Facebook by her supporters and goes viral.

When some pro-Trump accounts discovered it was actually an edited picture of another entirely different woman in a uniform, they ignited unfounded accusations that the picture came from the Democratic Party itself.

This looks like the first place this image has ever been posted is X, under the handle "The Infinite Dude," where he captioned it: "This is fake". The man behind the image said his name is Blake, and that he posted it in an experiment. Compared to all the others I've been able to speak with, his profile does not even have one tenth as many followers as the others do.

When I asked him to prove that he manipulated the photograph, he said, "I have the original files and creation timestamps", but did not share them with me as he claims proof does not really matter.

"People share content not because it's real, but because they want it to be real. Both sides do it equally - they just choose different stories to believe," he says.

His political persuasion is unknown and he says this "isn't about politics."

X says on its website its interest is to protect and preserve the voice of its user. The company places manipulated media labels for some AI-generated and doctored video, audio as well as images. It also boasts a function called Community Notes which crowdsources fact checking from users.

During the UK election, X took action against a network of accounts sharing faked clips that I investigated. In the US election campaign, however, I've had no response to my questions or request to interview Elon Musk.

That matters - because social media companies like his could affect what unfolds as voters head to the polls.