X to start out charging new customers $1 per 12 months in two international locations

World Courant

If you wish to be part of X, the service previously often called Twitter, by way of its web site in New Zealand and the Philippines, be ready to fork over $1 a 12 months for the privilege.

The subscription, a part of a so-called “Not A Bot” program, is starting in these two international locations and is designed to “bolster our already vital efforts to scale back spam, manipulation of our platform and bot exercise,” X stated Tuesday in an unsigned publish on its assist heart. As well as, new net customers in New Zealand and the Philippines must confirm their account with a cellphone quantity, the publish says. Fortune first reported that Musk was going to cost new customers $1 a 12 months shortly earlier than X’s announcement went reside.

X’s publish does not clarify why the brand new $1 subscription is just for new customers becoming a member of by way of the online and never the cell app, or why Not a Bot is just being rolled out in two international locations. A guess could be that X has seen extra bot exercise from these areas than others, and that it is a lot simpler to create a bunch of faux accounts by way of the web site. “New customers who choose out of subscribing will solely be capable to take ‘learn solely’ actions,” comparable to viewing posts and watching movies, in line with the corporate.

This new program is along with X’s fundamental subscription of $8 a month. Musk has been clear from the start of his Twitter takeover that he thinks charging will impede bot armies, though it is estimated {that a} very, very small proportion of customers are paying. In the meantime, he has been bragging about how time spent on X has by no means been greater.

Replace October seventeenth, 8:34PM ET: Added publish from Elon Musk.

X to start out charging new customers $1 per 12 months in two international locations

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