Elon Musk has indicated that X, formerly known as Twitter, is preparing to charge all users for accessing the platform.
The X owner said erecting a paywall around the business would ward off the bots, or automated accounts, that have become a bugbear for Musk.
Speaking in a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, the Tesla CEO and world’s richest person suggested that X was going to charge its user base. Currently, Twitter only charges users for its subscription service X Premium, which offers perks such as a verified account checkmark and costs $11 a month in the US for iPhones and £11 in the UK.
It won’t be the end of bots either, it means less users overall, and conversations can be influenced with 100 bots rather than 100,000.
Small timers won’t pay that, but corporation, PACs, and the wealthy won’t flinch at that kind of advertising budget.
And now Musk gets paid for them, he’ll never mention bots again.