‘X’ to begin charging annual fee for new users

Now you will be charged to prove you aren’t a robot.

Having made people pay for a blue tick, Elon Musk is now introducing even more charges on X, formerly known as Twitter. Musk, who purchased Twitter for $44 billion in April 2022, has introduced a host of changes – as well as slashing the headcount – since taking over, none of which have made him very popular. Now he wants to charge users $1 a year to use the platform.

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… — Support (@Support) October 17, 2023

Others weren’t happy about it, with one writing: “I would not pay just to use the Twitter app. That would the last straw.” “Why would I pay $ to see tweets from other people who pay for Twitter, the group most notorious for having the worst tweets ever made,” echoed another. The new move is called ‘Not A Bot’. And it is simple – people basically pay to prove they’re not a robot or spam on the social media account. The plus side, no more clicking all the cars, traffic lights, stairs in the boxes.

The new Not a Bot ($1 a year) menu has been made live in the settings panel.#X #BrandedFeatures pic.twitter.com/1bf2M5iJyX

— Mukul Sharma (@stufflistings) October 18, 2023

X/Twitter announces charge for new users

A release on the X website states: “As of October 17th, 2023 we’ve started testing ‘Not A Bot’, a new subscription method for new users in two countries. “This new test was developed to bolster our already significant efforts to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform and bot activity. “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. Within this test, existing users are not affected.” The test is being done in New Zealand and the Philippines. New users in the two countries will have to verify their phone number, and then opt to pay $1 USD annually “to perform certain actions on the web version of the platform: post content, Like posts, Reply, Repost and Quote other accounts’ posts, Bookmark posts”. The website notes that the prices may vary from country to country. New X users in New Zealand will pay $1.43 NZD per year, while those in the Philippines will have to pay ₱42.51 PHP per year. You can opt not to pay however, but that would mean you could only read people’s posts on the platform.

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