X is already paid in some countries. At least if you want to send messages, reply, retweet, and do something other than read messages. Elon Musk has finally started to implement the idea that everyone pays to use the social network, starting with New Zealand and the Philippines.

A symbolic amount. Fortunately, this move X Premium. In two selected markets, we are faced with an experimental program where new users who want to create an account must pay an annual subscription to be able to interact with the rest of the users.

According to X, existing users will not be affected. Starting October 17, new users will need to pay for this subscription, which costs about $1 per year (NZ$1.43 or 42.51 Philippine pesos).

‘Not a bot’. That’s the name of the program, and it officially aims to: “Amplify our already successful efforts to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform, and bot activity, while balancing platform accessibility with a small fee.” In short, fight against the bots that flock X.

X assures me that he doesn’t want to make money. “This is not a source of profit” They supply from X. Annual dollars is the amount required to authenticate a new user. This implies not only the fact that the payment has been made, but also that a valid mobile phone will be needed to verify the user’s identity.

This payment can be made via the Apple App Store on iOS, Google Pay on Android, or Stripe for third-party payments on the web. After one year, it automatically renews and is non-refundable unless manually canceled.

“It will be 1,000 times harder to manipulate.” Elon Musk confirmed this initiative with a message. “This is the only way to combat bots without blocking real users,” he said. The owner of the platform states that this initiative “will not stop bots completely” but “manipulating the platform will be a thousand times more difficult.”

“A bot costs much less than a penny, but even if you have to pay… a few dollars or so, the actual cost of bots is very high. Also, whenever a bot creator wanted to make another bot, they would need a new one.” payment method “, explained Musk a few weeks ago.

The Israeli-Palestinian war was the latest example of how disinformation spreads rapidly. Bots are one of the most immediate sources of misinformation, and this is a move to put an end to one of the X problems that have been on Musk’s mind since the moment he purchased the social network.

Open to reaching more countries. Beyond the fact that the platform will announce the results of this test soon, there is no official statement on whether it will reach more countries.

However, it is known that Musk intends for everyone to pay to enter the social network. It remains to be seen whether this move will actually succeed in reducing bots and change the significant depreciation trend that X has fallen into since its acquisition.

Image | ZACK/MCOM

in Xataka | Elon Musk has a goal for X: to turn it into a “super app” like WeChat. But we’re not in China