X (Twitter) tests an annual fee policy of 1 USD to limit virtual accounts

Elon Musk has made countless drastic changes to X (formerly Twitter) since he took over the social media platform last year. After introducing the X Blue paid premium membership and receiving good feedback, it seems that the billionaire is cherishing a bolder ambition, which is to turn X into a service that is only available subscription, or in other words, fully paid.

Early on October 18, X announced that the company has now begun testing a new service package called "Not A Bot", which requires users to pay an annual fee equivalent to 1 USD to be verified as 'not a bot', as well as receive some additional benefits.

More specifically, the "Not A Bot" program will charge users for liking, reposting or quoting other accounts' posts, as well as bookmarking posts on the web version of the platform. X said the main purpose of this program is not to increase revenue for the platform, but mainly to prevent virtual accounts (bots) and spam.

"Not A Bot" will be deployed for testing soon in two countries, New Zealand and the Philippines. In addition to paying the annual fee, those signing up for new X accounts in these two countries will also have to verify their phone numbers. On the contrary, a new registered account that does not accept payment will only be able to follow the account, read articles and watch videos but cannot post messages, like, reply, repost or quote other articles. .

Commenting on this plan, X owner Elon Musk, said:

"This is the only method to combat the problem of virtual accounts without affecting real users. Of course it will not be possible to completely prevent bots, but manipulating the platform will be 1000 times more difficult."

The bot problem has always been Elon Musk's top concern since he bought the company last year. Elon Musk believes that the completely paid model will help completely eliminate the bot problem from X, as AI is increasingly smart enough to be able to pass CAPTCHA tests.