Twitter was free, but X will no longer be. Starting today, the Elon Musk-owned social media platform will begin charging new users a flat fee of $1 a year if they want to post content or interact with other tweets. The new subscription plan, called ‘Not A Bot’, will start in two countries - New Zealand and the Philippines.
“Starting today, we're testing a new program (Not A Bot) in New Zealand and the Philippines. New, unverified accounts will be required to sign up for a $1 annual subscription to be able to post & interact with other posts. Within this test, existing users are not affected,” X said in a post, indicating that the subscription fee will also be launched in other countries in the future and will likely bring existing users within its fold.
New users who would not wish to subscribe will only be able to view and read posts, watch videos and follow accounts.
X, previously called Twitter, announced the new subscription fee in a post which drew shock, chagrin and ominous predictions. Many felt that charging users for the very basic functions of a social media platform would sound the death knell for X.
“Yep, that's it. That's the official death of Twitter,” wrote one user.
“The slow death of Twitter continues!” another said in response to the announcement. “The one hope for Twitter doing a test of the $1 charge to new users in two countries is that they'll very quickly realise they lose all new user and that nobody is paying, and then won't roll it out.”
Many blamed Elon Musk for “destroying” Twitter. “This man bought Twitter for $44 Billion and has absolutely tanked it. It’s incredible. Like $1 a year is going to stop bots,” wrote a commenter.
“Goodbye Twitter or X or whatever else you call this disaster now,” said another. One user called it the “kiss of death” for the platform.
The purpose of introducing the new subscription model is to combat bots and spammers, X said, but a number of people were of the opinion that a subscription fee would do little to combat the problem. Instead, it will only drive away existing users, they predicted.
Bots have been a contentious issue for Elon Musk who acquired the company last year. In July, X had introduced a limit on viewing tweets, "to ensure the authenticity" of its user base.
Earlier this month, Reuters had reported citing a source that X CEO Linda Yaccarino met with X's lenders, in which she had said the company would test three tiers of its subscription service based on the number of ads shown to the user.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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