Following the rise of bot and spam accounts on X (formerly Twitter), the social media platform plans to charge new users an annual fee for basic functions like posting, liking, bookmarking, and replying.
New users will only be required to pay a “small fee” for three months, after which they will gain free access to the platform. However, it is unclear whether the fee is meant to be annual rather than monthly.
Despite this, new users will still be able to follow other accounts. However, the social media platform hasn’t announced specific details, including the amount and implementation timeline.
On April 15, Elon Musk, X owner, acknowledged on the platform that he is considering charging new users to post tweets and engage in other activities on the platform to address the persistent bot issues.
Several X users started reporting bot issues shortly after Musk acquired the platform in 2022, despite his initial intent to purchase it to address the same concerns.
In the same month, X began charging an $8 monthly subscription to address this issue, but this appeared to backfire when fraudsters exploited the plan and used verified bot accounts in their scams.
Despite the tech giant’s efforts to improve the user experience by adding new features and providing more incentives to verified and Twitter Blue users, such as the ability to post more than 240 characters and edit previously posted tweets, the company is still struggling to eliminate the bot problem and has had to resort to various tactics.
This also isn’t the first time X has tried to charge new users to use the platform. In October 2023, the social media platform tried charging a $1 fee for new accounts opened in New Zealand and the Philippines. However, the success rate of this approach has yet to be confirmed.
Earlier in April, X initiated a massive purge of spam accounts, resulting in some users losing followers.
However, this idea is being reconsidered because, per Musk, “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’ checks with ease.”
