Elon Musk recently addressed the issue of combating bots on a social media platform by introducing fees for new users. The platform is expanding its policies to charge new users in New Zealand and the Philippines for specific actions such as posting, replying, bookmarking, and liking. This initiative aims to deter the proliferation of bots and improve user experience.
In October 2023, the platform’s Support account announced the testing of a new “Not a Bot” program in New Zealand and the Philippines. Musk explained that implementing a small fee for new user write access is the only way to mitigate the incessant presence of bots, as current AI and troll farms can easily bypass traditional bot-detection methods. Despite the introduction of fees for certain actions, new X account holders can still freely browse and read posts on the platform.
Elon Musk is optimistic about the future of X, with analysts predicting significant growth potential for the social media platform. Last year, it was estimated that the platform could expand exponentially from the initial acquisition cost of $44 billion.