Elon Musk Ushers New Payment Policy To New Users To Curb Bots

Elon Musk, the billionaire tech entrepreneur who owns the microblogging platform X, is planning to charge new users a fee to tweet in an attempt to control spam problems on the platform.

As things stand, the current testing of a spam reduction policy by X might result in the expansion of the policy to apply a fee for new users to use basic functions like posting, replying, liking, or bookmarking a post.

Elon Musk Tries to Combat Bots Onslaught

Elon Musk believes that charging a fee for new users to write access is the only way to combat the continuous onslaught of bots on the platform since tools like CAPTCHA can easily be bypassed by current AI and “troll farms.”

Notably, Musk has been fighting bots since he took over Twitter in a $44-billion deal that was completed in October 2022. Moreover, he has claimed that the fake accounts also use up the available namespace, resulting in many good handles being taken without appropriate uses.

In an attempt to test his idea, a similar policy was implemented in New Zealand and the Philippines on a trial basis in October, which required a $1 payment from new users to access additional features.

However, many users are concerned that this new potential charge won’t prevent the onslaught of bots. Some users argue that the policy won’t stop hundreds of businesses verified scam accounts every week, which scammers pay thousands of dollars for. A screenshot of a dubious verified Wormhole X account that was posting spurious links for an airdrop was used as evidence by Blockchain sleuth ZachXBT.

Meta Mint team member Roxo believes that the issue has nothing to do with new accounts being made but rather that X staff is useless at terminating fake accounts. The majority of bots and scam accounts were created years ago.

In late March, Musk announced that accounts with 2,500 verified subscribers as followers would no longer need to pay for “Premium” features. However, the ability to purchase verification status on the platform may have opened the doors for scammers. Earlier this month, X began a proactive initiative to eliminate accounts that violate their rules against platform manipulation and spam.