(Photo Illustration by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images)
In the future, new users to Twitter/X may have to fork over $1 per year to tweet.
On Tuesday, the company announced it would begin testing the payment requirement for new sign-ups over the web 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 and interact with other posts,” the company said in a tweet. In addition, new users in these countries will need to supply a verifiable phone number.
If the new user doesn’t pay, then Twitter will be available as a “read only” service. The user will be able to follow accounts, but they won't be able to retweet.
Twitter says the effort is meant to stop bots. Company owner Elon Musk has repeatedly insisted that forcing users to pay for Twitter’s blue verified check mark has been penalizing spammers, even though some users have been spotted abusing the verification badge to spread misinformation and gain clicks. The risk seems to have escalated in recent weeks, with users tweeting unverified news and false information about the Israel-Hamas war.
Still, Twitter claims it's already been “successful” at driving down spam and bot activity through the company’s paid subscription plan, which awards users with the verified badge, if they pay at least $8 per month.
“It is not a profit driver. And so far, subscription options have proven to be the main solution that works at scale,” the company added.
But to no one’s surprise, the test is already receiving scorn from users on Twitter, when traffic to the social media platform appears to be on a downward trend. “Paywalling the entire platform is not the way to encourage healthy, sustainable growth long-term. This is a terrible idea,” wrote one user. “Every platform has spam; there are better ways to deal with it than to punish every non-spam account!”
Others say the $1 fee will hardly deter bots, citing the spam they currently see on the platform and through direct messages from verified accounts. “One of the most dishonest things about X/new Twitter is this continued line of bullshit that charging money is some kind of magic bullet against spam,” wrote one user.