Musk Urges Users to Purchase X Accounts

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has announced that all users will eventually be required to pay to use his platform X.

In a web conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, Musk revealed that X would be transitioning to a “small monthly payment” system to access the platform. He explained that this decision was made to combat bots.

“It’s the only way I can think of to combat vast armies of bots. Because a bot costs a fraction of a penny — call it a tenth of a penny — but even if it has to pay…a few dollars or something, the effective cost of bots is very high,” Musk stated.

Musk did not provide further details on the new subscription plan, such as the rollout date and price.

Last year, after Musk took control of what was then known as Twitter, he initially proposed the idea of putting all of Twitter behind a paywall. This idea eventually developed into Twitter Blue, now known as X Premium.

Users can currently pay $8 a month, or $84 a year, for X Premium, which provides them with access to features such as longer posts, the ability to edit posts, and prioritized rankings in replies.

However, the change has not been widely embraced. According to estimates, only 827,000 out of Twitter’s over 500 million users are subscribed to X Premium.

This shift could be another attempt to regain revenue for the platform after many advertisers left last year. While Musk has stated that most advertisers have returned, reports suggest that X has not been able to fully recover from the loss.