NEW X USERS HAVE TO PAY A ‘SMALL FEE’ TO POST AND INTERACT WITH OTHERS, MUSK SAYS

Wed 17 April 2024:

Elon Musk has announced to charge a small fee from users for tweeting on social media platform X to fight bots and fake users, Pymnts reported.

Last October, the company began experimenting by charging a $1 subscription fee annually from users in the Philippines and New Zealand.

Musk may apply a strategy similar to this in other regions as well.

Replying to a user account on X, the Tesla owner wrote, “Unfortunately, a small fee for new user write access is the only way to curb the relentless onslaught of bots. Current AI and troll farms can pass ‘are you a bot’ with ease.”

In a follow up reply he wrote, “The onslaught of fake accounts also uses up the available namespace, so many good handles are taken as a result.”

Rumours regarding the change in policy first went off on X by an automated account made to track changes on X.

This policy change has come in light of millions of bot accounts being detected that lead to either fake products or pornographic content.

However, Musk is yet to share details on when the new changes will come into effect or how much new users will have to shell out to post, like and bookmark posts on the platform.

In October last year, soon after his interaction with Netanyahu, Musk started a new experiment called ‘Not A Bot’ program that required new users to pay a $1 fee if they wanted to interact with posts. The new user fee experiment was live in New Zealand and the Philippines, but it is still unclear how much the fee deterred bots from the platform.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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