New users from the Philippines or New Zealand will now need to pay $1 per year to use Elon Musk’s X (formerly known as Twitter), the firm has discreetly announced via a new support document in its help center and a message from the platform’s official account.
The ‘Not A Bot’ program is reportedly a membership service for “new users” in the Philippines and New Zealand. “This new test was developed to bolster our already significant efforts to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform, and bot activity,” says X. As it purportedly strikes a balance between the platform’s “accessibility with the small fee amount,” “this will evaluate a potentially powerful measure to help us combat bots and spammers on X.” However, it should be noted that current customers won’t be required to pay the $1 cost.
Simply stated, expect to pay $1 per year to X in order to use it if you are a new user wishing to create an account on X and if you are from the Philippines or New Zealand.
However, users should be aware that although they may still be able to create “read-only” accounts so they may see what is occurring on X, if they want to “write,” they must pay the $1 price.
Elon Musk has already verified this development as well. “True, reading is free, but writing costs $1 each year. As Musk responded to a user on X, “It’s the only method to battle bots without banning actual users. Musk said, “This won’t stop bots completely, but it will be 1000X harder to manipulate the platform.”
X Will Check Phone Numbers And Request That Users Choose Their Subscription Level
As stated on X’s ‘Not A Bot’ support page, when consumers join up, X will initially ask them to confirm their phone numbers before presenting them with the options of the $1 yearly plan, X Premium, or Verified Organizations. Musk noted that new users would only be allowed to carry out “read-only” tasks, including as reading posts, viewing videos, and following accounts, if they decide not to subscribe and use X for free.
With that said, it is unclear if this test program would be replicated in nations other than the Philippines and New Zealand, but given that Musk is adhering to the narrative of waging the war against the bots, it is possible that this $1 per year model will also be applied to other nations—since the bots aren’t just from those two nations, of course.
