Social media platform X will begin charging people to use the site in an attempt to reduce the presence of fake accounts on the platform, Elon Musk said.
In an interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Musk said the company was ‘moving to a small monthly payment’ for the use of the X system.
“The single most important reason that we’re moving to having a small monthly payment for use of the X system is that it’s the only way I can think of to combat vast armies of bots. Because a bot costs a fraction of a penny, or a tenth of a penny, but if somebody even has to pay a few dollars or something, some minor amount, the effective cost of bots is very high, and then you also have to get a new payment method every time you have a new bot.” adds Musk.
Details of the so-called ‘small fee’ have yet to be disclosed, and it is still unknown whether the ‘subscription’ would provide any special features to users.
X already offers a premium subscription with a monthly fee of $8 per month for web users, or $11 per month for iOS and Android users.
Subscribers to the premium service receive a verification tick, the ability to write longer posts, the ability to edit existing posts, and priority placement in search results.
