X, formerly known as Twitter, will begin charging new users $1 a year to access key features including the ability to tweet and retweet

archive.org

X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, will begin charging new users $1 a year to access key features including the ability to tweet, reply, quote, repost, like, bookmark, and create lists, according to a source familiar with the matter. This change will go live today for new users in New Zealand and the Philippines.

Roughly 20 minutes after this story published, X’s Support account confirmed the details, writing that “this new test was developed to bolster our already successful efforts to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform and bot activity, while balancing platform accessibility with the small fee amount. It is not a profit driver.”

Starting today, we’re testing a new program (Not A Bot) in New Zealand and the Philippines. New, unverified accounts will be required to sign up for a $1 annual subscription to be able to post & interact with other posts. Within this test, existing users are not affected.

This new test was developed to bolster our already successful efforts to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform and bot activity, while balancing platform accessibility with the small fee amount. It is not a profit driver.

And so far, subscription options have proven to be the main solution that works at scale. — Support (@Support) October 17, 2023

The company published the “Not-a-Bot Terms and Conditions” today outlining its plan for a paid subscription service that gives users certain abilities on their platform, like posting content and interacting with other users. This program is different from X Premium, which offers more features like “Undo” and “Edit” for posts for $8 a month. Given the company’s tumultuous reputation under Musk, some users have voiced their hesitancy to turn over their credit card info.

X owner Elon Musk has long floated the idea of charging users $1 for the platform. During a livestreamed conversation with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month, Musk said “It’s the only way I can think of to combat vast armies of bots.”

Shortly after the announcement, Musk tweeted that you can “read for free, but $1/year to write.”

“It’s the only way to fight bots without blocking real users,” Musk wrote. “This won’t stop bots completely, but it will be 1000X harder to manipulate the platform.”

X CEO Linda Yaccarino was asked last month onstage at Vox’s Code Conference about how going to a full subscription model on X will affect revenue, something that is now going live to users today. Yaccarino answered at the time, “Did he say that or did he say he’s thinking about it?”

maegul,
@maegul@lemmy.ml avatar

Honestly don’t think it’s an insane idea. Not sure how effective $1 would be against bots, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the idea makes sense: basic and low friction to deter a large amount of spam. Maybe it’s $5 a year or whatever.

Of course there’s an equity issue for those who can’t afford this, especially if it goes mainstream and every online thing requires similar and we get Netflix -> Cable all over again.

But here on the Fedi I can see the idea working if applied to some instances that have set up the governance (eg co-op) and services (committed moderators) for it to make sense.

I think it would be cool if being an admin and moderator could genuinely be a side hustle or more without sucking away at someone’s passion.

itmightbethew,
@itmightbethew@beehaw.org avatar

i agree completely, and i’ve said it before, a small fee goes a long way to stopping spam and the bad kind of shitposting. It’s barrier that a lot of actors, good and bad, can climb, but they’ll be at least someone who can’t or won’t.

thing is, twitter has already eroded so much trust and relevance that i think for a lot of folks this might be the last straw. we’ll see - much like the reddit rebellion it’s hard to tell how many folks will actually quit from the noise alone.

For the fediverse i’m not certain at all. on the one hand many of us want the fediverse to grow and become more diverse. Fees are a barrier to entry. but i also agree, as you say, that mods and admins deserve something for their trouble - especially since their job is a lot harder on lemmy.

i hate to say, but maybe discord has it right? monetize cosmetics and stuff? i really don’t know. Disclosure i am nitro subscriber, mostly for the emoji.

maegul,
@maegul@lemmy.ml avatar

I’m not really on discord (occasionally have gone on there) … but generally the whole fedi, IMO should probably be taking notes from them because they’ve obviously done a few things right which also seem to be exactly the things the fedi definitely doesn’t understand.

On the small subscription fee for the fedi, I think it would work best for specific instances. Here, decentralisation is a strength (again), as the small instance/community approach is well suited as the alternative to the large-with-a-small-subscription model and should provide a diversity of options for different kinds of people.

As for Twitter, right now a bunch of takes are floating around about how dumb the fee is (at least on masto, which has a huge bias against twitter) … while some will definitely leave I do wonder whether it actually makes sense for a lot people. How many principally lurk and would prefer their feed were “better” and are willing to be on a platform that requires the subscription for this? I wouldn’t be surprised if down the line we here takes from people who don’t pay but stay on Twitter because they like the feed better.

dark_stang,
@dark_stang@beehaw.org avatar

Most of that going to get eaten by transaction fees. Is Elon still involved in a transaction processor?

itmightbethew,
@itmightbethew@beehaw.org avatar

there’s a conspiracy theory - use the fee as a way to normalize paying X for things and then pivot to paying through X for things until it’s the fascist super app of elon’s sweaty fever dreams.

anothermember,

I don’t think that’s even a conspiracy theory, I think it’s obvious that’s what they’re doing.

Even for what they offer now; if you already have your payment details registered with “X”, then it’s a much easier decision to make about paying for a blue tick or editing rights or whatever else.

Leafeytea,

Yep. Obviously he can go ahead and claim now whatever he wants about this move being all about combating bots but it seems fairly obvious to me that this is not about that. Getting access to registered users payment info is just one more way to loop people into their system and keep track of who.what.where type of users they have. Charges and platform uses for buying marketed products on the platform is just a hop skip click away at that point.

Bots meanwhile will continue to do what they always do; $1 a year to register in is nothing. They will also most likely be able to do this via a one time only use type credit card where user info is irrelevant.

StarServal,
@StarServal@kbin.social avatar

There are still new users signing up for shitter?

Titan,

Not anymore

Stillhart,

I mean I get what they’re trying to do, but I feel like the people successfully making money with spam/bots will not really have a problem with that fee.

NattyNatty2x4,

That’s because reducing the bot problem isn’t actually what they’re trying to do. They’re trying to patch the gaping hole in revenue that advertisers left in their exodus

saigot,

At it’s peak twitter had 500million users. in 2022 twitter made 4.5bil in profit. Typically a 1% signup rate for a new paid service is considered really good and there is no way that there are still 500million users. Seems like it’s just a drop in the bucket.

Personally I think it’s yet another attempt to intentionally dismantle the company.

NattyNatty2x4,

Twitter made 4.5 billion in revenue, not profit. They likely weren’t making profit yet, but either way we’re still not privy to the company’s exact profit before or after Musk’s takeover, and therefore aren’t privy to how much this charge would affect their margins.

Personally I think it’s yet another attempt to intentionally dismantle the company.

If Musk wanted to dismantle Twitter he’d just shut it down. He owns the thing, he doesn’t need a secret plan to fuck it up he can just do it. He’s just flailing around trying to patch the holes in his $44 billion fuck up and leaning into his alt-right image of it

dan,
@dan@upvote.au avatar

there is no way that there are still 500million users.

It’s surprisingly hard to get a count of users. They’re not a public company any more, so don’t have to product quarterly earnings reports any more (which usually show the number of users). Just from the first page of Google results for “Twitter number of users”, some sites say they have 237 million users, some say 372 million, some say 528 million (way too high), some say 396 million.

Whatever the case, they’re the smallest major social media site. Even Pinterest is larger :)

arquebus_x,

Bots aren't a "problem" for Twitter unless the advertisers think there are more of them than there are real users. But if you can convince advertisers that you're reducing bots, while also not actually reducing bots, you've got a winning formula. Bots are reliable posters, they contribute a lot more than a regular user, and they make high-engagement tweets/posts/tweex that end up getting a lot of views, aka advertising opportunities.

Stillhart,

Insightful, thx.

NattyNatty2x4,

Sure, but bots aren’t why advertisers pulled out of Twitter, and replacing the revenue that advertisers used to provide is the main motivator behind this change. Any other justification or claim by Musk is just his typical PR bullshit that people still seem to lap up like it’s the word of god

pbjamm,
@pbjamm@beehaw.org avatar

Why does he not just start his own X branded bot farm to help keep Xittter afloat?

Maajmaaj,
@Maajmaaj@lemmy.ca avatar

I just let out a laugh that sounded like Cartman as cupid. This shit is bafflingly hilarious

Butterbee,
@Butterbee@beehaw.org avatar

Ain’t no way I am giving Elon Musk $1.

WarmSoda,

Do you use Twitter?

ulkesh,
@ulkesh@beehaw.org avatar

I don’t. And haven’t since the moron took over. I can’t wait until everything he touches fails. Even if that means SpaceX.

Bangs42,

I prefer to hope that he loses SpaceX. They are legitimately doing cool new things that we honestly need. But they can do that without Elon’s involvement and he doesn’t need to profit from it.

dan,
@dan@upvote.au avatar

Nobody uses Twitter, since it doesn’t exist any more. X.

theangriestbird,

he can pay me $1 for a taste of deez nuts.

Butterbee,
@Butterbee@beehaw.org avatar

lmao don’t sell yourself so short! Charge him $8 monthly for Nuts Blue

theangriestbird,

you’re right i’ve got a premium product on my hands

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • technology@beehaw.org
  • fightinggames
  • All magazines
    •