If there is one thing we have become accustomed to since Elon Musk took over the reins of X, formerly known as Twitter, it is that the mogul has a myriad of controversial ideas that he applies to supposedly improve the user experience on the social network.
Undoubtedly one of the aspects that the billionaire has most focused on is the fight and work to end bots within X, as these fake accounts with no human behind them pose a serious problem for social networks.
The main danger of these bots is that they are used to influence public opinion through massive campaigns supporting a company or individual with money, creating false popularity for the payer’s benefit.
Therefore, since his arrival, Musk has gone after these bots, and has tried to do so with campaigns of persecution and massive blocking of suspicious accounts that are not human. However, the percentage of bots in X remains very high, and as a new measure, the mogul has announced that they will implement a small fee for those new users who want to post on the social network.
As explained in response to an X account announcing this possible change, this is the only way they have to prevent and stop “the relentless onslaught of bots” coming to their platform. As we said, this novelty would only affect newly registered users on the social network, thus preventing new bots from registering since they would have to pay to use X.
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
Undoubtedly, it is not a good campaign to attract new human users, but it is the solution that his team has come up with since bots are now capable of passing the “prove that you are human” test, also known as CAPTCHA, easily.
Musk has not indicated when this change will be implemented or how much the payment will be for new users, although it is believed that they began testing it in regions like New Zealand or the Philippines in October 2023.
Furthermore, he has also clarified that this payment will not be mandatory, and if new users do not want to pay the fee, they can still access X, follow new accounts, and read posts, but they will be limited from interacting with them for the first three months after creating the profile. After that period, it is believed that the option to post will be unlocked for them.
