By John Ikani
X, previously known as Twitter, on Tuesday, announced that it has initiated a practice of charging new users in New Zealand and the Philippines for utilizing essential features, such as posting messages.
The billionaire Elon Musk, who has owned X since last year, clarified that this new subscription approach aims to enhance ongoing efforts against spam, platform manipulation, and bot activity.
During this trial period, new web users in the Philippines will be required to pay X approximately $0.75 per year, while users in New Zealand will pay around $0.85 yearly. This fee grants them access to fundamental functions, including posting on the platform.
Users who opt not to pay the modest fee will have access to a limited “read-only” version of X. This version allows them to read posts, watch videos, and follow accounts, as per the company’s statement.
The company explained, “This measure will be assessed as a potentially effective way to combat bots and spammers on X while maintaining accessibility to the platform with the small fee involved.”
Existing users in these countries will not be impacted by these changes.
Since Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter last year for $44 billion, he has implemented various controversial alterations to the social media firm’s management and product.
One of his recent proposals was to impose a nominal fee on all users as a means to address the issue of fake accounts, a move that garnered criticism from users worldwide.
