Elon Musk’s X is planning to charge users in New Zealand and the Philippines joining via the platform’s web application $1 per year as part of its programme to reduce bot activity.
The subscription is part of X’s “Not A Bot” programme, which attempts to “bolster our already significant efforts to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform and bot activity”, the company noted in a help centre post on its website on Tuesday.
As part of the pilot programme, new users signing up via the website in the two countries will also be required to verify their account with a phone number, the unsigned post said.
It remained unclear why the subscription programme is being rolled out only in these two countries, and exclusively for new users joining via the X website, and not the mobile app.
However, Not a Bot’s terms and conditions suggested that people may also subscribe to the programme from X’s iOS and Android apps, while the main help centre post only specified web.
X did not immediately respond to The Independent’s request for comment.
“As of October 17th, 2023 we’ve started testing “Not A Bot”, a new subscription method for new users in two countries,” the company posted.
“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,” it said.
New users from the two countries who opt to subscribe with $1 will for the web version of the platform will be able to post content, like posts, reply, repost and quote other accounts’ posts, as well as bookmark posts, X noted.
However, those who opt out of this subscription in the web application “will only be able to take ‘read only’ actions, such as: Read posts, Watch videos, and Follow accounts,” the company stated.
“This new programme aims to defend against bots and spammers who attempt to manipulate the platform and disrupt the experience of other X users. We look forward to sharing more about the results soon,” it added.
The latest programme is also in addition of X’s premium $8 subscription option.
Commenting on a post on X about the new programme, Mr Musk called it “the only way to fight bots without blocking real users.”
“Correct, read for free, but $1/year to write. This won’t stop bots completely, but it will be 1000X harder to manipulate the platform,” the multibillionaire said.
X’s latest decision is in line with the Tesla titan’s aim to curb bot activity on the platform since before his takeover of then-Twitter in November last year.
He has also held from the beginning that charging users would curb bot activity on the social media platform even though it has been found that only a small fraction of users subscribe to its $8 premium service.
But the multibillionaire has continued to hold that a subscription fee would make it harder for bots to create accounts since each bot would need a new credit card to register on the platform.
“It’s the only way I can think of to combat vast armies of bots,” Mr Musk said last month.
“Because a bot costs a fraction of a penny – call it a tenth of a penny – but even if it has to pay a few dollars or something, the effective cost of bots is very high,” he added.
