X/Twitter To Make New Users Pay As Governing This Wild, Wild West Is Hard
Photo 299708455 © Wewe Tbre | Dreamstime.com
As X, formerly Twitter, wrestles with an ongoing bot influx, owner Elon Musk has found a way to stem the tide: throw money at the problem, except let future users do it. Newcomers would have to pay a fee to properly interact on the platform, a move he believes will deter spam-heavy accounts.
Musk recently confirmed the impending introduction of this initiative by replying to posts by the X Daily News and X Updates Radar accounts, which uncovered new language added to the site referencing a “small annual fee” new users would have to pay to use the social network. Musk claimed that this change was real and explained it was “the only way to curb the relentless onslaught of bots.”
Unfortunately, a small fee for new user write access is the only way to curb the relentless onslaught of bots.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 15, 2024
Current AI (and troll farms) can pass “are you a bot” with ease.
The onslaught of fake accounts also uses up the available namespace, so many good handles are taken as a result
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 15, 2024
First piloted in New Zealand and the Philippines last October, the Not A Bot program required any new users of X to fork out US$1 annually, US$8 per month for the X Premium tier, or US$1,000 a month for Verified Organizations, to gain full access to the platform’s features, including posting, replying, and liking content. This amount, while optional, restricted unpaid accounts to a read-only experience.
Existing users won’t be affected by the new fee system.
On its website, X/Twitter has explained that the initiative isn’t profit-focused but is more about weeding spambots and manipulative accounts from taking root. “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,” the company explains.
[via Gizmodo, Forbes, TechCrunch, cover photo 299708455 © Wewe Tbre | Dreamstime.com]
