Elon Musk, the owner of X (formerly Twitter), has unveiled a new strategy to address the persistent issue of bots plaguing the platform: charging new users a fee before they can post. Musk revealed that this measure is deemed necessary as previous efforts to tackle the bot problem have proven ineffective.
Responding to an X account’s post about the platform’s policy on new accounts, Musk emphasized the necessity of implementing a small fee for new user write access as the only viable solution to mitigate the influx of bots. He cited the ease with which current AI technology and troll farms circumvent traditional bot detection methods.
While Musk did not specify the timeline or the exact amount new users would be charged, he hinted at a similar fee structure to that implemented in New Zealand and the Philippines last October. In those regions, new unverified users were required to pay a nominal fee to interact with posts, while free access was limited to reading content.
Furthermore, Musk announced a sweeping cleanup initiative aimed at purging the platform of bot accounts and trolls. This crackdown, he stated, would result in the suspension of millions of accounts. Additionally, X vowed to not only suspend bot accounts but also pursue legal action against their owners.
The move comes amidst mounting complaints from users and advertisers regarding the prevalence of bots on the platform, which undermines the significance of genuine human engagement. Bots, automated non-human users, perform various actions autonomously, including liking posts, reposting content, and sending direct messages, without requiring supervision.
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