Elon Musk seems to be considering charging a monthly subscription to be able to use X, formerly Twitter. The reason? The billionaire believes that a paywall It would be the most effective way to attack the “army of bots” that affects the platform.
The social media owner hinted that he might install a subscription paywall during a live-streamed conversation with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Musk mentioned during the talk that the monthly fee “would be a small amount of money” and that it was necessary to combat fake accounts.
“The biggest reason we’re going to have it is a small monthly payment for using System X, because it’s the only way I can think of to combat large armies of robots,” Musk said.
Currently, Twitter only charges users for its X Premium subscription service, which offers benefits such as a verified account verification mark and costs $8 per month (about 137 Mexican pesos at the current exchange rate).
The billionaire noted that setting up the bots costs “a fraction of a cent,” but that raising the cost of an account to “a few dollars or so” could discourage software operators. “Also, every time a bot creator wanted to create another bot, he would need another new payment method.”
Who wants to pay Elon Musk for X?
The reactions on social networks have not been long in coming. Users point out that before the platform worked very well and was free, but now that it has been flooded by extremists and has flaws, they are looking to charge for its use.
@pearlmania500 We can finally stop asking: How is this website free? #twitter #elonmusk #conversation #marriedlife #podcast #mrspearlmania #pearlmania500 #money #tesla ♬ original sound – Pearlmania500
Since Elon Musk bought the platform in October 2022, X has had a “bleed” of advertisers, workers and monthly active users. The millionaire paid $44 billion at the time for Twitter, but in May the platform was valued at just $15 billion, a third of the purchase price.
In accordance with Al JazeeraMusk has laid off thousands of X employees, introduced a paid premium option, removed content moderation, and reinstated previously banned accounts, including that of former US President Donald Trump.
In July, he even said that the platform had lost about half of its advertising revenue.
Editorial Team The editorial team of EMPRENDEDOR.com, which for more than 27 years has worked to promote entrepreneurship.