Users could soon be asked to pay for sharing tweets and comments. For X boss Musk it is a necessary step in the fight against bots.
Munich – Social media such as Facebook, Instagram or TikTok are essentially free for consumers. Only users' personal data could be viewed as digital currency and the price of entry into the world of social media. However, many larger platforms now offer paid extras. For verifications, such as colored ticks for Meta or X, users have to pay a monthly fee.
X boss Elon Musk is now going one step further and announcing a fee for new customers on the platform formerly known as Twitter in order to be able to use basic functions. According to Musk, it is a necessary step in the fight against bots.
Musk announces new fee for using X: “The only way to curb the onslaught of bots”
“Unfortunately, charging a small fee for new users to access the typing feature is the only way to curb the relentless onslaught of bots,” Musk posted on Monday evening (April 15) in response to a post from the X Daily News profile. It was speculated that in the future the platform could collect a certain contribution from new customers before they could interact on X. According to the message profile, this could also affect the “like” and bookmark functions.
Musk did not disclose what costs users might incur. Only that it should be a “tiny amount”. According to him, it is the only way to get spam accounts under control. However, he announced that it would only affect new users and that they would also be able to post and comment on posts for free after three months. Months ago, the owner of Twitter also announced a reading limit for non-paying users.
Musk has not yet been able to win the fight against bots
Musk's plans have been public for a long time, according to which the use of X could become chargeable. The pilot project called “Not a Bot” started in New Zealand and the Philippines in autumn 2023. Users in these countries who sign up for X will now have to pay a fee of one US dollar per year. Anyone who speaks out against it can only read along on the platform and cannot write or comment themselves.
However, IT experts were skeptical. IT security expert Marcus Hutchins has serious doubts that bot activity can be stopped with the fee of one dollar per year. It would much more likely cost the company money: "Spammers will use stolen credit cards - and the costs for chargebacks will be higher than the subscription income," wrote Hutchins on the Facebook Group's rival service Threads Meta.
Even before taking over Twitter, the entrepreneur announced that he would “defeat spam bots or die trying.” So far, however, the company boss and his team have not managed to get the bot problem under control, despite promises to the contrary receive. Current AI programs could easily pass the common tests used to expose bot accounts, Musk now complained on X. (jm/dpa)