New users in New Zealand and the Philippines who wish to join X, formerly known as Twitter, via its website will now need to pay an annual fee of $1 as part of the “Not A Bot” program.
X aims to enhance its ongoing efforts to combat spam, platform manipulation, and bot activity, according to an unsigned post on its help centre. Additionally, new web-based users in these two countries will be required to verify their accounts with a phone number. It’s not explained in X’s post why the $1 subscription is exclusive to new web users and not applicable to the mobile app, or why the “Not a Bot” program is limited to these specific countries.
It is presumed that X has identified higher levels of bot activity in these regions, and it may be easier to create fake accounts through the website. Users who choose not to subscribe will have limited functionalities, allowing them to only engage in “read-only” actions, such as viewing posts and watching videos.
In addition to X’s primary monthly subscription of $8, this new initiative has been introduced. Musk has consistently expressed his belief that charging for the service will help deter bot armies since only a very small fraction of users are currently paying. At the same time, he has been proudly highlighting that user engagement on X has reached all-time highs.
