Elon Musk is continuing his upheaval of the platform formerly known as Twitter.
On Monday, X’s owner said that the platform will start charging new users to post in an attempt to get rid of bot and spam accounts.
In response to an X post that claimed Musk was initially testing the new policy to “improve the experience for users overall,” Musk replied that initiating a “small fee” was the “only way” to get rid of bots on the platform.
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 15, 2024
He also alleged that new AI technology has the capability of surpassing prompts that are meant to curb bots.
In a second post, Musk responded to a user concerned that charging new users would make the platform less “special,” Musk clarified that the pay plan would be short-lived — new users would only have to pay the fee for three months before they could post freely.
That is way harder than paying a tiny fee.
This is only for new users. They will be able to do write actions for free after 3 months.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 15, 2024
Musk did not elaborate on how much the fee would be nor when it is set to be implemented. It remains unclear whether or not Musk’s comments this week mean that users worldwide will face the fee or if the company will be testing it in select markets.
Related: Elon Musk Says X ‘May Fail’ Amid Competition, Ad Losses
Last October, Musk began charging all non-verified users in the Philippines and New Zealand a $1 fee to post as a part of X’s “Not a Bot” subscription model.
Users who agreed to the policy and paid the fee were able to continue posting as they wished on the platform, while those who opted out were placed in a “view-only” account mode that does not permit posting or re-posting but allows users to read posts, watch videos, and follow new accounts.
At the time, X did not say when, if ever, the policy would roll out to other countries.
Related: Elon Musk’s X Will Starting Charging Unverified Users $1 to Post on the Platform