Last October, X/Twitter started charging a $1 annual fee to new accounts before they could post on the platform, but only in New Zealand and the Philippines. The change was a part of a new program called Not a Bot, with the goal to bolster X’s efforts to “reduce spam, manipulation of our platform and bot activity.”
Now, it appears that this program is expanding to all markets.
The changes was noted by XUpdatesRadar, an automated account which detects text string changes on X’s website and apps. The new text, detected Monday, states that “New accounts are required to pay a small annual fee before you’re able to post, like, bookmark, and reply. This is to reduce spam and to create a better experience for everyone. You can still follow accounts and browse X for free.”
X owner Elon Musk seemingly confirmed the news in a tweet.
“Unfortunately, a small fee for new user write access is the only way to curb the relentless onslaught of bots. Current AI (and troll farms) can pass “are you a bot” with ease,” he wrote.
“The onslaught of fake accounts also uses up the available namespace, so many good handles are taken as a result,” he added in a subsequent tweet.
It’s unclear how big the fee will be, but in the New Zealand and the Philippines test it was set to $1, which amounted to $1.43 NZD in New Zealand and 42.51 PHP in the Philippines. There’s also no info on when the new scheme will come into effect.
Elon Musk vowed to rid Twitter/X of spambots even before he acquired the platform in 2022. One of the measures he implemented was to start charging for the blue checkmark “verified” status, though that did little – both anecdotally and according to research – to solve the issue.
