X, formerly Twitter, is charging users who open new accounts in New Zealand and the Philippines an annual fee of $1 under the ‘Not A Bot’ program. New users who do not pay the fee will have a read-only account and thus will not be able to interact with posts shared on the platform.
Social media platform X today announced a new trial to charge “new unverified” users $1 per year to interact with posts.
The company said this test is currently being used in New Zealand and the Philippines and existing users will not be affected.
Payment Required To Enter The Interaction
By paying this fee, users will be able to post, like, repost, reply, bookmark and quote content.
Users who choose not to pay, on the other hand, will have a read-only account, which will only allow them to read posts and follow accounts.
Thought To Help Reduce Spam
The company’s support account explained that this “Not A bot” program is non-profit.
The Elon Musk-owned company said this program will help it reduce spam.
“This new test was developed to support our already successful efforts to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform, and bot activity, while balancing platform accessibility with small fees.This is not a profit motive,” the company said.
The company said on its support page that it will share the results of the program’s effectiveness in combating spam.
Last month, Elon Musk stated that they were considering switching to a system that would require all users to make monthly payments to access the platform.
He emphasized that this application could be a solution to get rid of bots and fake accounts.
Musk said, “We will use a low-tier pricing system. This is a longer discussion, but I think this is the only defense against the bot army on the platform.”
Three-tier Premium Feature May Be Coming
X currently only has an $8 monthly paid plan. But according to a recently discovered code, the company could offer three premium tiers, one of which would be completely ad-free.
Source:expatguideturkey