Elon Musk says X could charge users monthly fee. Elon Musk, a tech billionaire, hinted on Tuesday that users of social media platform X, formerly Twitter, might be charged a monthly fee, saying that the only way to deal with bots is to implement a payment system.
In a conversation with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, Musk stated, “We’re moving to having a small monthly payment for use of the system.”
Although it’s unclear whether this was a casual remark or a sign of more concrete plans, he stated that his solution to fighting bots and fake accounts on social media is to charge for verification.
The new owner of the popular social media platform X, who took over last year, is encouraging users to subscribe to X Premium by providing them with more features like longer posts and greater visibility.
Also read: Erdogan asks Elon Musk to build Tesla factory in Turkey
As Elon Musk says X could charge users monthly fee, Users can still use X for free right now, though.
There appears to be a clear financial interest for the company to charge users, according to BBC, despite Musk’s insistence that getting people to pay for the service is intended to combat bots.
“A bot costs a fraction of a penny” to make he said. “But if somebody even has to pay a few dollars or something, some minor amount, the effective cost to bots is very high”.
The world’s richest person is exploring cheaper options for users of X Premium, which currently costs $8 (£6.50) per month in the US, depending on the subscriber’s country.
“We’re actually going to come up with a lower tier pricing. So we just want it to be just a small amount of money,” he said.
“This is a longer discussion, but in my view, this is actually the only defence against vast armies of bots,” Musk added.
The possibility exists, though, that putting X behind a paywall could cause a drastic drop in its user base.
It might even have an impact on the business’s current main source of income, advertising revenue, leading to a decline as a result.
