New and unverifed accounts on Elon Musk’s social networking platform, X, will now be required to pay the sum of $1 sign up fee as annual subscription.
Without this, they won’t be able to post and interact with other posts.
The company said the program is now being tested in New Zealand and the Philippines in preparation for its global rollout.
This, however, is not going to affect unverified existing users on the platform.
X noted that new users who opt out of subscribing at the sign up stage will only be able to take “read-only” actions, such as reading posts, watching videos, and following accounts.
“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.
“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 company stated.