By Oluwatosin Maliki
On Tuesday, Elon Musk, the CEO of social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, announced that it has officially commenced billing new users in New Zealand and the Philippines for using basic features on the application like posting messages.
The billionaire who acquired the site last year issued a statement that its new subscription method is part of its strategy to “bolster” existing efforts to further reduce spam and “manipulation of our platform and bot activity.”
Consequently, the new web users in the Philippines and New Zealand will have to pay X around $0.75 and $0.85, respectively, every year, so as to have access to basic functionality, such as posting on the site.
In addition, Elon Musk explained that those who refuse to pay the subscription fee will be restricted from having access to a “read-only” version of the platform, which limits them to only reading posts, watching videos, and following accounts.
The company added, “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”.
Furthermore, it noted that already existing users in these countries are not affected by the new development.
Ever since Musk acquired Twitter last year for $44 billion, the CEO has made a number of drastic changes to the social media firm’s management and product.
His most recent idea is to charge all users a nominal fee to use the site in an effort to tackle fake accounts, although this move has sparked a lot concerns and criticism from users around the world.
