Microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter) might soon introduce a monthly fee for all its users in a bid to curtail the impact of bots, owner Elon Musk said during a conversation with Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Bots are accounts run by computer programmes/algorithms rather than humans and are prevalent on the platform, where they are used to artificially amplify messages that have a negative impact on its users.
During his conversation, Netanyahu raised the question of online anti-Semitism, and how X could “prevent the use of bots to replicate and amplify it”.
Musk replied saying the company was “moving to having a small monthly payment for use of the X system”.
According to Musk, introducing a payment feature for all users is the “only way” to combat the vast armies of bots.
“Because a bot costs a fraction of a penny — call it a tenth of a penny — but if somebody even has to pay a few dollars, some minor amount, the effective cost of bots is very high. And then you also have to get a new payment method every time you have a new bot,” Musk said.
