Twitter or X users will be charged $1 or roughly Rs 83 per annum for basic features such as liking, reposting and quoting posts.
Target group
Currently it’s targeted at new users who wish to actively engage with the platform.
This includes posting their own content, liking posts, responding to others, and quoting content from fellow users.
Those who do not pay will still be able to read posts, watch videos, and follow other accounts, but they won’t be able to actively participate in discussions.
Who are affected?
The social media platform has named this subscription plan “Not a Bot”.
Currently it applies to users in New Zealand and the Philippines.
“New users who opt out of subscribing will only be able to take ‘read only’ actions, such as: read posts, watch videos, and follow accounts,” it said in the post.
The price translates to approximately NZ$1.43 and 42.51 Philippine pesos.
Why?
The intention is to “combat bots and spammers”.
“As of October 17th, 2023 we’ve started testing ‘Not A Bot’, a new subscription method for new users in two countries,” the company said in a post.
“This new test was developed to bolster our already significant efforts to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform and bot activity.
“This will evaluate a potentially powerful measure to help us combat bots and spammers on X, while balancing platform accessibility with the small fee amount. Within this test, existing users are not affected.”
The bot issue
Bots refers to automated accounts operated by computer programs.
They are dangerous because of their use to influence narrative on a wide variety of topics and issues.
They are also often behind promoting inflammatory content online such as political propaganda or hate speech.
The truth?
However, the reasoning is more than just this.
Ever since owner Elon Musk took over last year, the site has suffered from declining revenue from advertisers, its main source of income.
He said an advertiser boycott since his takeover and concern about its management of inappropriate or hateful content has caused ad revenue to decline by 60%.
The current plan
Currently, X charges its users $8 a month under its “X Premium” subscription model which gives users a blue checkmark along with early access to some services, such as Edit Post.
In India, Twitter Blue costs ₹900 per month for both Android and iOS.
For web it is ₹650 per month.
There is also an annual subscription priced at ₹6,800 on web and ₹9,400 per year on mobile.
