Elon Musk is ramping up the fight against bots on X as a way to stop ‘manipulation on the free-speech platform.’ X will begin charging new users in New Zealand and the Philippines $1 per year to post or interact with other users on the platform, a move Musk says “will be 1000X harder to manipulate the platform.”
X account “Support” provided more details of the subscription called “Not A Bot” program:
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.
This new test was developed to bolster our already successful efforts to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform and bot activity, while balancing platform accessibility with the small fee amount. It is not a profit driver.
And so far, subscription options have proven to be the main solution that works at scale.