X’s 2026 terms classify prompts and outputs as “Content,” grant broad AI-training rights, add anti-jailbreak rules and keep $15k scraping penalties with Texas courts.
Summary
- 2026 terms redefine Content to include prompts, outputs and data “obtained or created” through X, licensed worldwide for any use, including AI training, without extra pay.
- New misuse clause targets AI “jailbreaking,” prompt injection and circumvention, while liquidated damages stay at $15,000 per 1,000,000 posts scraped in 24 hours.
- X keeps Tarrant County, Texas, as the forum, imposes 1–2 year claim windows, class-action waivers and a $100 liability cap, moves critics say chill research and lawsuits.
Social media platform X announced terms of service changes effective Jan. 15, 2026, that expand the company’s definition of user “Content” and add provisions related to artificial intelligence system operations, according to the updated agreement published by the company.
X and the crypto content
The revisions broaden the definition of user Content to explicitly include “inputs, prompts, outputs,” and information “obtained or created through the Services,” according to the draft terms. The current terms, dated Nov. 15, 2024, remain in effect until the 2026 version takes over.
Under the updated agreement, users grant X a worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable license to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display, and distribute Content “for any purpose,” including analyzing it and training machine learning and AI models, according to the terms document. The agreement states that no compensation is paid for those uses and that access to the service constitutes “sufficient compensation.”
The 2024 terms framed user responsibility around “any Content you provide,” without expressly naming prompts and outputs, according to a comparison of the documents.
The 2026 draft adds a prohibited-conduct clause targeting AI circumvention attempts. The terms define “misuse” to include attempts to bypass platform controls through “jailbreaking,” “prompt engineering, or injection,” language that does not appear in the 2024 terms, according to the documents.
The updated agreement includes Europe-specific provisions addressing content enforcement under European Union and United Kingdom law. The terms note that EU and UK law can require enforcement against content described as “harmful” or “unsafe,” with examples including bullying or humiliating content, eating disorder content, and content about methods of self-harm or suicide. The 2026 terms add UK-specific language describing how users can challenge enforcement actions under the UK Online Safety Act 2023.
X maintains restrictions on automated access and data collection, barring crawling or scraping “in any form, for any purpose” without prior written consent. The terms set liquidated damages at $15,000 per 1,000,000 posts requested, viewed, or accessed in any 24-hour period when violations involve that volume, according to the agreement. The 2026 draft adjusts wording to apply when a user induces or knowingly facilitates violations.
Dispute provisions require claims to proceed in federal or state courts in Tarrant County, Texas. The 2026 text states that forum and choice-of-law provisions apply to “pending and future disputes” regardless of when the underlying conduct occurred. The updated terms establish a one-year deadline for federal claims and two years for state claims, replacing the single one-year deadline in the earlier version.
The agreement includes a class-action waiver barring users from bringing claims as a class or in representative proceedings in many cases, and caps X’s liability at $100 per covered dispute, according to the terms.
The Knight First Amendment Institute stated that X’s terms “will stifle independent research” and called the approach “a disturbing move that the company should reverse.” The Center for Countering Digital Hate announced in November 2024 that it would quit X ahead of a terms change and criticized the Texas venue requirement as a tactic to steer disputes toward favorable courts. The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism described how lawsuits can have “a chilling effect” on critics, according to published statements.
The changes take effect Jan. 15, 2026, according to X’s announcement.
