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Elon Musk’s X has said it is testing a new subscription model in which it will charge $1 a year to new web users for features such as sharing or liking posts, as part of the billionaire’s efforts to rid the social media platform of bots.
In a post on Wednesday, the company formerly known as Twitter said the subscription model, called “Not a Bot”, would be introduced to new users in New Zealand and the Philippines.
Users will be required to verify their phone number and then charged the $1 fee in order to post, like, share or reply to posts on the web version of X. New users who opt out will only be able to read posts, watch videos and follow accounts, it said, adding that existing users would not be affected.
“This new test was developed to bolster our already significant efforts to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform and bot activity,” X said in a post. “This will evaluate a potentially powerful measure to help us combat bots and spammers on X, while balancing platform accessibility with the small fee amount.”
It is unclear if these changes will eventually apply to the app as well.
The subscription plans, first reported by Fortune, are in line with Musk’s pledge to eradicate bots from X, a concern he had before and after he bought the platform for $44bn in October last year. At one point, he cited their proliferation as a reason for pulling out of the deal.
The test comes as X attempts to boost revenues after many marketers pulled their ad dollars from the platform last year, pointing to Musk’s decision to relax moderation on the platform since his takeover. Revenues were down by 60 per cent in the US, Musk said last month, without specifying a timeframe.
X currently has an $8 and $11 a month premium subscription service for web and app users, respectively, though Musk recently floated the possibility of charging all users to solve the bot problem.
The company has also been exploring a tiered subscription model, charging users based on how much advertising they want to see and other features such as the ability to edit posts and create long-form content, according to a person familiar with the situation, which was first reported by Bloomberg. These will be called Basic, Standard and Plus, the person said.
Separately, X faced criticism last week over misinformation and hate speech around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict proliferating on the platform. EU regulators have launched an investigation into the matter.
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