Elon Musk has announced a new X policy that will charge new X users a fee to post content. He said the move was the “only way” to stop the “onslaught of bots” that plagues the social media platform.
In response to an X user about tackling bots on the platform, Musk argued, that, “Unfortunately, a small fee for new user write access is the only way to curb the relentless onslaught of bots.”
“Current AI (and troll farms) can pass ‘are you a bot’ with ease,” he referring to tools like CAPTCHA.
The company, formerly Twitter, has not said when the new policy would be implemented and what the cost for new users would be.
Musk said charging a fee was an easier option to stop bots, and said new users will be able to post for free after three months.
“This is only for new users. They will be able to do write actions for free after 3 months,” he said.
Not the first
This wouldn’t be X’s first attempt at monetizing user interaction. Last October, the firm implemented a $1 annual fee for new, unverified users in New Zealand and the Philippines. These users could only read posts, not interact with them, without paying.
The proposed fee for new users comes on the heels of a recent X purge of spam accounts, impacting follower counts. While tackling bots is a priority, critics question how a paywall aligns with X’s previous stated use of public posts to train AI models.
Further complicating the picture is the recent move to make the Grok chatbot, previously a premium feature, available to a wider X user base.
Earlier this month, xAI made its Grok chatbot available to Premium users of X, who pay $8 per month. The chatbot was previously available to users paying $16 per month for the Premium+ tier.
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