SAN FRANCISCO – Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has begun rolling out a new subscription that will charge new, unverified users US$1 (approximately RM4.70) each year for its basic features, reported German Press Agency.
New users in New Zealand and the Philippines will be the first to trial the “Not-a-Bot” programme, X said in a statement.
“This new programme aims to defend against bots and spammers who attempt to manipulate the platform and disrupt the experience of other X users,” the company said.
“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.”
Existing users would not be affected by the new subscription service. Those who opt not to pay would be able to take “read only” actions, including reading posts, watching videos and following accounts. However, they would be unable to like posts, reply, repost, quote or bookmark posts.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk took over the company formerly called Twitter a year ago after buying it for US$44 billion. After taking over Twitter, Musk laid off some 80% of its 8,000 global staff – and admitted it resulted in the platform losing a large amount of its functionality.
He also oversaw the scrapping of legacy “blue ticks”, which verified a user’s identity and were replaced by a paid-for subscription called Twitter Blue (now known as X Premium). – October 18, 2023