X, formerly called Twitter, launched its “Not a Bot” beta Tuesday, which charges new accounts a $US1 annual fee to tweet and retweet. The initial test applies to new accounts created in New Zealand and the Philippines to allegedly “combat bots and scammers on X,” the company said on its Help Center page.
The Not a Bot test will not apply to existing accounts, X said, but those who are creating an account will receive a subscription prompt after signing up asking them to pay the fee but will also allow them to opt-out. If a user does not agree to pay for the subscription, they will only be able to access “Read Only” content which allows them to read posts, watch videos, and follow accounts.
If they agree to pay for the subscription, new users will be able to post content, like and reply to posts, bookmark posts, and repost and quote posts from other accounts.
X says on its site that the “new program aims to defend against bots and spammers who attempt to manipulate the platform and disrupt the experience of other X users.” It further clarifies that new accounts will only be able to access the actions on the web version of the platform, but does not specify why it doesn’t apply to the downloaded app.
Although X repeatedly says subscribers will pay a $US1 USD fee, the Not a Bot test does not apply to U.S. users and the company reiterated that local pricing applies. This means new users in the Philippines will be charged ₱42.51 PHP per year. Meanwhile, New Zealand users’ fee is only slightly more than the promoted $US1 USD, costing new account holders $US1.43 NZD per year.
“This new test was developed to bolster our already significant efforts to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform, and bot activity,” X said on its site. “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.”
The fee is in addition to X’s existing Premium subscription option which rolled out in November 2022 charging users $US8 per month to add a blue checkmark to their accounts. It also includes select features like editing posts, seeing 50% fewer ads, and prioritized rankings that boost the accounts’ posts to the top of the feed.
Musk suggested plans to eventually charge all users to access the platform since he took over the company last year. Last month, Musk said in a live-streamed discussion with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he wanted to charge a “small amount of money” on X, adding, “This is a longer discussion, but in my view, this is actually the only defense against vast armies of bots.”
The required $US1 fee marks a major shift for X which has been free to all users since it launched as Twitter in 2006. The newly added fee is unlikely to deter all bots, something Musk acknowledges in the announcement, but may push away existing users and advertisers who have already begun to flee the platform.
Advertisers expressed concerns over X’s failure to police hateful content on the platform, and Musk confirmed last month that advertising revenue dropped by 60% since his takeover. Musk claimed in an X post last month that the decreased revenue is “primarily due to pressure on advertisers by ADL” – an anti-hate organization – “… so they almost succeeded in killing X/Twitter!”