Elon Musk to charge new users to create an account on X; Know why

Rumours about Elon Musk charging a fee for creating an account on X have been circulating for quite some time. Last month, Musk also hinted at the possibility of charging people a fee to use the platform. In a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the billionaire said that in the future, users might have to pay a small monthly fee to be on X, and it seems he wasn't kidding.

On Tuesday, Elon Musk confirmed that the platform will begin charging new users to create an account. This is done in only two countries and is limited to users trying to create a web account. The subscription method is called "Not A Bot" and aims to reduce bot activity, spam and manipulation of the platform.

X users to pay for new accounts

A post on the spam, manipulation of our Platform activity and bots. This will test a potentially powerful measure to help us combat bots and spammers on X while balancing the accessibility of the platform with the small fee. In this test, the Existing users are not affected.

The "Not A Bot" method is currently being implemented in two countries: New Zealand and the Philippines. It is unclear why these two countries were chosen or if X plans to implement the method in other countries.

It should be noted that users who do not wish to pay a subscription fee can still create an account but will only be able to perform "read-only actions" such as reviewing posts, watching videos, and following accounts. They cannot post their own content or interact with posts.

Confirming the same, Musk tweeted, "Read for free, but USD 1/year to write. It's the only way to fight bots without blocking real users. This won't stop bots completely, but it will be 1000X harder to manipulate the platform."

"New users will be able to perform certain actions on the web version of the platform: post content, like posts, reply, repost and quote other accounts' posts, bookmark posts, etc," X wrote on its Help Center page.