social · X Corp
You’re creating on X, which means…
X does not take your posts — it says twice, in plain words, that you own them. What it takes is the right to hand them to the world, train its AI on them, and pass them to other companies, and the contract names your use of the app as the payment.
What they own
Nothing, and X puts it plainly: “What’s yours is yours — you own your Content”. That sentence appears twice — once in each of the two versions of these Terms.
What you own
The copyright, and the audio, photos and videos inside your posts, which the contract counts as part of the same Content. The licence is non-exclusive, so you can post the same thing elsewhere, sell it, or license it. You are also the one who warrants you had the right to grant it in the first place.
What you don’t
Any payment, and any exit. The terms say the deal is already settled: “the use of the Services by you is hereby agreed as being sufficient compensation for the Content and grant of rights herein.” Deactivating ends your licence to use X, not X’s licence to your posts — the section holding the grant is on the list that “shall continue to apply”, and the contract adds that these Terms “survive the deactivation or termination of your account”.
What they can do with it
Use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display, upload, download and distribute it — “in any and all media or distribution methods now known or later developed, for any purpose”. That includes training X’s machine learning and AI models, and handing your posts to “other companies, organizations or individuals” for the “syndication, broadcast, distribution, repost, promotion or publication of such Content on other media and services”.
The clauses
The grant
You retain your rights to any Content, including anything referenced therein, you submit, input, create, generate, post, or display on or through the Services. What’s yours is yours — you own your Content (and your incorporated audio, photos, and videos are considered part of the Content).…In choosing to submit, input, create, generate, post, or display Content on or through the Services, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display, upload, download, and distribute such Content, including anything referenced therein, in any and all media or distribution methods now known or later developed, for any purpose.…You represent and warrant that you have, or have obtained, all rights, licenses, consents, permissions, power and/or authority necessary to grant the rights granted herein for any Content that you input, submit, create, post, generate, or display on or through the Services.
Ownership isn’t the question
X says you own your posts, and means it. The word doing the work in this sentence is “license”, not “own” — everything that follows runs on the licence, and a licence does not need ownership to be broad.
With the right to sublicense
X can pass the right on to someone else. The sentence after next says what that is for: “This license authorizes us to make your Content available to the rest of the world and to let others do the same.”
For any purpose
The licence is not tied to running X. It covers media and distribution methods that do not exist yet, for purposes the contract declines to list.
You warrant the grant
The breadth is X’s; the responsibility for having been entitled to give it is yours. If a post contains work you did not have the rights to, this sentence is the one that puts that on you.
Training the models, and passing it on
You agree that this license includes the right for us to (i) analyze text and other information you provide and to otherwise provide, promote, and improve the Services, including, for example, for use with and training of our machine learning and artificial intelligence models, whether generative or another type; and (ii) to make Content submitted to or through the Services available to other companies, organizations or individuals, including, for example, for improving the Services and the syndication, broadcast, distribution, repost, promotion or publication of such Content on other media and services, subject to our terms and conditions for such Content use.
AI training is written in
This is not read into a general licence — the words are in the grant itself, and they cover generative models by name.
Other companies
Clause (ii) is the sublicence in practice. Your posts can be syndicated and republished “on other media and services”, “subject to our terms and conditions for such Content use” — X’s terms for that use, not yours.
Two contracts in one page
X publishes two versions of these Terms — one for users outside the EU, EFTA States and the UK, one for users inside. The European version carries a sentence the other does not: “However, if you have chosen via our features to limit the distribution of your Content to a restricted community, we will respect that choice.”
What you get paid
Such additional uses by us, or other companies, organizations or individuals, is made with no compensation paid to you with respect to the Content that you submit, post, transmit or otherwise make available through the Services as the use of the Services by you is hereby agreed as being sufficient compensation for the Content and grant of rights herein.
Access is the payment
The contract names the consideration outright: being allowed to use X. Using the app is treated as the fee already paid to you.
It reaches downstream
The sentence opens on “Such additional uses by us, or other companies”. The no-compensation rule covers what those other companies do with it, not only what X does itself.
Deactivating doesn’t end it
In all such cases, the Terms shall terminate, including, without limitation, your license to use the Services, except that the following sections shall continue to apply: 2, 3, 5, 6, and the misuse provisions of Section 4 (“Misuse of the Services”).…For the avoidance of doubt, these Terms survive the deactivation or termination of your account.
Section 3 is the grant
Section 3 is “Content on the Services” — the section containing “Your Rights and Grant of Rights in the Content”. It is on the survival list. What ends is your licence to use X; what continues is the licence you gave X.
No “perpetual”, no “irrevocable”
Neither word appears anywhere in X’s Terms of Service. The same result is reached by a cross-reference to a section number, which is far easier to read past.
Both versions
The survival sentence appears twice in the document — once in each version of the Terms. Where you live changes several things; this is not one of them.
The licence running the other way
We give you a personal, worldwide, royalty-free, non-assignable and non-exclusive license to use the software provided to you as part of the Services. This license cannot be assigned, gifted, sold, shared or transferred in any other manner to any other individual or entity without X’s express written consent. This license has the sole purpose of enabling you to use and enjoy the benefit of the Services as provided on X, in the manner permitted by these Terms.
Read the subject
“We give you” runs from X to you, and it covers the app — not your posts. The grant that matters is the one that begins “you grant us”.
The asymmetry, in one page
The licence you receive cannot be passed to anyone without X’s written permission. The licence you give comes “with the right to sublicense” and can reach anyone.
What it’s worth if they get it wrong
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF THE X ENTITIES EXCEED THE GREATER OF ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS (U.S. $100.00) OR THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US, IF ANY, IN THE PAST SIX MONTHS FOR THE SERVICES GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM.
The floor
If you have never paid X anything, one hundred dollars is the ceiling on everything — a deleted archive, a suspended account, a lost decade of posts.
Who it shields
“X Entities” is defined in the same section as “X Corp., its parents, affiliates, related companies, officers, directors, employees, agents, representatives, partners, and licensors.” “Partners” is the same word the Content section uses for where your posts travel: X may modify or adapt your Content “as it is distributed, syndicated, published, or broadcast by us and our partners”. The cap shields them on the way out.
Due Dilly reads the paperwork and reports what it says. This is not legal advice.