Elon Musk trials $1 subscription signup fee for new X users in New Zealand, Philippines

X, previously generally known as Twitter, is testing a signup mannequin whereby new users must both pay to turn into a verified enterprise account, choose into an X premium subscription, or pay a $1 annual fee to show they’re not a bot. The trial, which started on Oct. 17, is presently solely relevant to new users in New Zealand and the Philippines. 

The experiment, in keeping with a publish on X’s assist heart, is called “Not A Bot.” As its title implies, its goal is reportedly to discourage bot exercise on the app by requiring all users (who’re included in the take a look at) to confirm their cellphone quantity and fee methodology.

Per the assistance heart publish:

“As of October seventeenth, 2023 we’ve began testing ‘Not A Bot’, a new subscription methodology for new users in two nations. This new take a look at was developed to bolster our already vital efforts to scale back spam, manipulation of our platform and bot exercise.”

The publish goes on to state that “new users” who pay the $1 subscription fee “will be capable to carry out sure actions on the net model of the platform: publish content material, Like posts, Reply, Repost and Quote different accounts’ posts, Bookmark posts.”

Those that don’t pay the fee and choose out of subscribing “will solely be capable to take ‘learn solely’ actions, corresponding to: Learn posts, Watch movies, and Comply with accounts.”

Right, learn for free, however $1/yr to write down. It’s the one approach to combat bots with out blocking actual users.

This received’t cease bots fully, however it will likely be 1000X tougher to govern the platform.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 18, 2023

It’s unclear at the moment precisely how X intends to find out the effectiveness of the “Not A Bot” trial. Cointelegraph’s request for commentary from the corporate solicited a direct response of “busy now, please test again later.” 

Earlier analysis on the character of social media “bots” has revealed the time period to be nebulous. In line with one research, it isn’t at all times obvious whether or not accounts producing bot-like habits are, in reality, bots.

There’s additionally the consideration that bots, and their habits, are more likely to turn into way more subtle in mild of the continuing giant language model-driven revolution in consumer-facing synthetic intelligence chatbot expertise.

Associated: Anthropic built a democratic AI chatbot by letting users vote for its values

In line with X, the subscription is supposed to cut the bots off on the knees by making it not solely troublesome to automate the signup course of however financially deterring the organizations and people accountable for deploying them. 

Response in the crypto and finance communities — the place spam bots stay an ongoing drawback — has ranged from outright acceptance of the pay-to-interact mannequin to a rejection of the premise. 

$0.08 per 30 days is fairly inexpensive for no bot manipulation.

Anybody who complains about this merely needs the bot manipulation to run rampant.

— Colin Talks Crypto (@ColinTCrypto) October 18, 2023

One person replying to a publish from a preferred account sharing the information known as the transfer a price prospect at lower than $0.10 per 30 days, stating, “Anybody who complains about this merely needs the bot manipulation to run rampant.” One other opined that it represented “the tip of X. It had a brief run.”