Nikita Bier calls out Perplexity over alleged undisclosed promotion campaign after Personal Computer launch

Nikita Bier, X’s head of product, publicly called out Perplexity on Thursday over what he called “undisclosed promotion campaigns,” tagging CEO Aravind Srinivas directly in the post.

The post was made hours after Perplexity announced the rollout of Personal Computer, a new feature for its Mac app that handles tasks across local files, native apps, and the browser. It is currently going out to Perplexity Max subscribers and users on the waitlist.

Today we’re releasing Personal Computer.

Personal Computer integrates with the Perplexity Mac App for secure orchestration across your local files, native apps, and browser.

We’re rolling this out to all Perplexity Max subscribers and everyone on the waitlist starting today. pic.twitter.com/kxgFQFo7BB

— Perplexity (@perplexity_ai) April 16, 2026

“Can you please stop the undisclosed promotion campaigns? It deceives users and it does not reflect well on your company or your integrity,” Bier wrote.

Bier was responding to a thread by Dr. Simon Goddek, who claimed to have spent two years infiltrating what he called large-scale promo networks for crypto and AI products on X. Goddek alleged these networks operate in violation of X’s terms of service and shared what he said were screenshots showing Perplexity posts being coordinated as paid promotions without disclosure.

In the thread, Goddek named a figure he identified as “DoomerZoomer,” claiming the person runs a Telegram group coordinating around 150 large X accounts, with individual posts priced anywhere from $500 to $2,000. He also alleged the individual had previously been banned from Chess.com for cheating.

That said, a few others also jumped into the comments under Bier’s post, backing up the allegations, with one user noting that these undisclosed posts were “so obviously fake” that they had to mute the word Perplexity.

There is a separate irony worth noting here. Perplexity quietly wound down its official advertising programme earlier this year, citing trust concerns. Executives had said ads risk making users “suspicious of everything.” So yes, this is quite awkward for the company.

Apart from the moral question, one commenter pointed out that it could constitute an FTC violation in the US since sponsored content must be clearly labeled under US consumer protection rules.

Perplexity has not publicly responded to Bier’s accusation as of publication. Srinivas has not commented on the thread either.

We’d also suggest taking the allegations with a grain of salt, since there’s still no concrete evidence that links these Telegram promos directly to Perplexity. 

It’s also worth noting that Perplexity recently dropped Grok from its list of supported models. More on that here. In any case, we’ll keep an eye out for any further details and will update the article accordingly.

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