Elon Musk to introduce monthly fee on X to curb bots, amid financial struggles

Elon Musk plans to introduce a "small monthly payment system" for X, formerly known as Twitter. According to the CEO, this move is aimed at curbing the increasing number of bots on the platform. Musk's proposed payment scheme is expected to be more affordable than Twitter Blue, which will also begin to introduce a government-issued ID verification feature.

Musk's decision to implement a nominal fee is a reaction to the enhanced capabilities of AI, which can now surpass humans in evading CAPTCHA tests. These tests are a standard security feature designed to differentiate between human users and bots. Since purchasing the social media platform last year, Musk has been candid about X's bot problem and has been contemplating the introduction of a paywall to address it.

X is currently dealing with financial issues, including a nearly 50% drop in advertising revenue and significant debt, so the need for a plausible financing system has always been in the air, and perhaps we are close to the most drastic changes on the platform since Musk's arrival. In the meantime, you can always rely on Mastodon for an alternative federated open-source social network, or Threads if you are looking for something more similar to X.