Elon Musk rolled out a new subscription plan to charge new users of X, formerly known as Twitter, to post content on the platform.
The social network company wrote on its website that it started testing “Not A Bot” Tuesday in two countries, New Zealand and the Philippines.
According to X, the subscription method will help “reduce spam, manipulation of our platform and bot activity.” It also noted that the test will not impact existing users and only new accounts on the web.
As for how the new program works, new users will pay a $1 annual fee (noting that prices vary by country and currency) to be able to post content, like posts, reply, repost, quote other accounts’ posts and bookmark posts on the web version of the platform. Those who opt-out will only be able to read posts, watch videos and follow accounts.
Musk said on the plan on X Tuesday, “Correct, read for free, but $1/year to write. It’s the only way to fight bots without blocking real users. This won’t stop bots completely, but it will be 1000X harder to manipulate the platform.”
The new plan came nearly a month after reports that Musk was considering charging all users to access the social platform. During a livestreamed conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month, the Tesla CEO said, “We’re moving to having a small monthly payment for use of the system” to help ward off the bots.
He added, “Plus, every time a bot creator wanted to make another bot, they would need another new payment method.”
However, at the time, Musk didn’t share any additional details or confirm if and when the program would roll out.
In the U.S. currently, X only charges users for its subscription tier X Premium, which costs $11 a month, and offers additional perks including a verified account checkmark.
