Having made people pay for a blue tick, Elon Musk is introducing even more charges on X.
Musk, who purchased what was formerly known as Twitter for $44 billion in April 2022, has introduced a host of changes – as well as slashing the headcount – since taking over, none of which have made him very popular.
Now he wants to charge users $1 a year to use the platform.
Some users suggested the move could boost X’s earnings by $14-21 billion annually.
Others weren’t happy about it, with one writing: “I would not pay just to use the Twitter app. That would the last straw.”
“Why would I pay $ to see tweets from other people who pay for Twitter, the group most notorious for having the worst tweets ever made,” echoed another.
‘Not A Bot’
The new money-making-move, is called ‘Not A Bot’. And it is simple – people basically pay to prove they’re not a robot or spam on the social media account. The plus side, no more clicking all the cars, traffic lights, stairs in the boxes.
A release on the X website states: “As of October 17th, 2023 we’ve started testing ‘Not A Bot’, a new subscription method for new users in two countries.
“This new test was developed to bolster our already significant efforts to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform and bot activity.
“This will evaluate a potentially powerful measure to help us combat bots and spammers on X, while balancing platform accessibility with the small fee amount. Within this test, existing users are not affected.”
Test locations
The test is being done in New Zealand and the Philippines.
New users in the two countries will have to verify their phone number, and then opt to pay $1 USD annually “to perform certain actions on the web version of the platform: post content, Like posts, Reply, Repost and Quote other accounts’ posts, Bookmark posts”.
The website notes that the prices may vary from country to country.
New X users in New Zealand will pay $1.43 NZD per year, while those in the Philippines will have to pay ₱42.51 PHP per year.
You can opt not to pay however, but that would mean you could only read people’s posts on the platform.
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