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New users on X will be charged an annual fee, says Elon Musk. But why?
The Musk-owned social platform is aware of the bots plaguing its growth and it feels that putting a few for new users could help it stop the menace.
Elon Musk is bringing a new paid tier on X which will be needed if you want to write a post, reply to one or even like a post on the platform. Musk points out that spam and bots are a big menace on X and he feels that the only way to curb their growth is to charge anyone who is new to the platform.
It is also mentioned that X will allow everyone to follow and browse the platform for free, but anybody who is keen on joining on X will be charged an annual fee, without giving the exact details. “New accounts are required to pay a small annual fee before you’re able to post, like, bookmark and reply. This is to reduce spam and to create a better experience for everyone. You can still follow accounts and browse X for free,” the terms which will be going live soon confirms.
Musk has been planning for some big changes on the platform, which mostly includes making most of the features on X chargeable. Earlier, Musk talked about charging every X user to help him run the business effectively. Most people were not pleased to hear X (earlier known as Twitter) going behind a paywall for even the basic features.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, Musk is definitely making things harder for his company by stating that new X users will be charged for features like posting, replying and even liking a post. So, what is the reason behind Musk ready to take a hit on the overall user growth of the platform? “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,” Musk explained in his post this week.
He also feels that fake bot accounts have taken used up the available namespace which means so many good handles are not available to the actual user on the platform.
We still don’t know how much the annual fee is going to be, but X has tested this option in select markets where new users were being charged $1 (Rs 82 approx) for the whole year and they seem convinced that is the way forward on the platform. X already offers its Premium subscription in different tiers, which even includes the Grok AI chatbot for the Premium+ users.
