Elon Musk is bringing in even more charges on X.
The multibillionaire purchased the social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, last year and has since brought in a host of changes.
He already received backlash for charging people a monthly fee to have a blue tick on their profile, and now he's created another subscription.
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Musk's decision comes despite X users threatening to boycott the app if Musk brought in more fees to use it.
"I would not pay just to use the Twitter app," fumed one person online.
"That would the last straw."
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"Why would I pay $ to see tweets from other people who pay for Twitter, the group most notorious for having the worst tweets ever made," echoed another.
Musk's new subscription is called 'Not A Bot' - where people basically pay to prove that they're not a robot or spam on the social media platform.
"As of October 17th, 2023 we’ve started testing 'Not A Bot', a new subscription method for new users in two countries," a release on the X website explains.
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"This new test was developed to bolster our already significant efforts to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform and bot activity.
"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. Within this test, existing users are not affected."
The test is currently being conducted in New Zealand and the Philippines.
New users in the two countries will be required to verify their phone number, and then opt to pay $1 USD annually ' to perform certain actions on the web version of the platform: post content, Like posts, Reply, Repost and Quote other accounts’ posts, Bookmark posts'.
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The website notes that the prices may vary from country to country.
New X users in New Zealand have to pay $1.43 NZD per year, while those in the Philippines will have to pay ₱42.51 PHP per year.
You can opt not to pay however, but that would mean you could only read people's posts on the platform.
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Musk has received yet more criticism in light of the subscription fees beginning yesterday (October 17).
"Gradually Musk is killing the platform," said one person of the news.
"Nahhh, f**k that sh*t," wrote another.
Someone else suggested: "He is trying to get back the billions he lost in buying Twitter."
However, a few others hailed the service as a good idea.
On person wrote: "That's a great step forward in reducing spam and bot accounts!"
It's unclear if and/or when Musk might bring the new fees to other countries.
Topics: Technology, Social Media, Twitter, Elon Musk, News
Niamh Shackleton