Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) has announced that it will start charging new users $1 per year for the privilege of posts on the social media platform or interact with with others posts.
The yearly subscription, which is part of X’s “Not A Bot” program is aimed at reducing bot accounts in order to reduce spam and manipulation on the platform.
However, X is only charging $1 to new users signing up for the platform via web in New Zealand and the Philippines.
The reason behind choosing these countries may be increased bot activity but the social media platform is not applying these charges to users signing up via mobile app.
Furthermore, all current users on X from these countries will not be affected.
Starting today, we're testing a new program (Not A Bot) in New Zealand and the Philippines. New, unverified accounts will be required to sign up for a $1 annual subscription to be able to post & interact with other posts. Within this test, existing users are not affected.
— Support (@Support) October 17, 2023
This…
Responding to another post, Elon Musk stated that it was the only way to fight bots without blocking real users. “This won’t stop bots completely, but it will be 1000X harder to manipulate the platform.” he added.
Correct, read for free, but $1/year to write. It’s the only way to fight bots without blocking real users.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 18, 2023
This won’t stop bots completely, but it will be 1000X harder to manipulate the platform.
It must be noted that the new program is in addition to the X’s main subscription of $8 that gets you a verified badge and some additional features.
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