Elon Musk’s social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, is testing a program that would charge users an annual fee to post, reply, like and use a host of other key features, it confirmed in a post on its “Help Center.” The platform is rolling out a test version of the program, called “Not a Bot,” that will cost new users in New Zealand and the Philippines $1 a year. The program went live Tuesday, the company said. “It’s the only way to fight bots without blocking real users,” Musk wrote in a post. “This won’t stop bots completely, but it will be 1000X harder to manipulate the platform.” The plan appears to be a follow through on one of Musk’s ideas from last month—after he posted that X was “moving to having a small monthly payment” for use of the platform.
Starting today, we're testing a new program (Not A Bot) in New Zealand and the Philippines. New, unverified accounts will be required to sign up for a $1 annual subscription to be able to post & interact with other posts. Within this test, existing users are not affected.
