Elon Musk has casually introduced plans to start out charging a month-to-month price to everybody utilizing X, his new title for Twitter.
The world’s richest man revealed the plan late Monday throughout a live-streamed chat with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by which he was requested how he plans to take care of the big armies of bots that amplify hate speech.
“The only most necessary purpose we’re transferring to have a small month-to-month fee to be used of the X system is it’s the one approach I can consider to fight huge armies of bots,” Musk replied casually.
He defined that including a subscription to entry the social media web site would make it troublesome for bots to create accounts as a result of they’d every must register a brand new bank card.
Musk didn’t specify how a lot cash he would cost every consumer, however mentioned it could be “lower-tier pricing” than what X prices its premium subscribers – which is about $eight every month.
“We’re wanting it to be only a small amount of cash,” he mentioned.



“It’s an extended dialogue, however in my opinion, that is the one protection in opposition to huge armies of bots, as a result of as AI will get very, superb, it’s really capable of go these form of CAPTCHA exams higher than people.”
Musk had beforehand floated the thought of requiring customers to pay a month-to-month price final yr amid huge layoffs on the firm, in accordance with a report from the tech publication Platformer.
It reported that the Tesla CEO had mentioned the thought with enterprise capitalist David Sacks in November, however the thought was dismissed in favor of first providing wide-scale verification.
However the firm is continuous to hemorrhage cash, with Musk saying earlier this month that Twitter’s advert income was down 60%.
He blamed the challenges on the Anti-Defamation League for the lack of income after the nonprofit reported a spike in hate speech on X following the reinstatement of banned accounts there.
Musk tweeted that the ADL was “making an attempt to kill this platform by falsely accusing it & me of being anti-Semitic.”
As he confronted backlash for that tweet, Musk introduced he would meet with Netanyahu.
“Mainly he’s saying, ‘If I needed to pay an excessive amount of for Twitter you do too,’” journalist Kara Swisher tweeted upon listening to the information.

The announcement that X could also be put behind a paywall drew ire on the platform, with journalist David Leavitt tweeting that the transfer can be “the demise of this app.”
“The entire purpose social media is widespread is as a result of they’re free and your pals are on it,” he mentioned. “Not everybody can afford to pay.”
Historian Alex von Tunzelmann added: “Even in the event you had been comfortable to pay a price, I actually don’t suppose it could be an excellent thought to entrust this firm together with your bank card or financial institution particulars.”