On Tuesday, the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, announced Tuesday that it has begun charging new users in New Zealand and the Philippines to use basic features like posting messages.
X, owned since last year by the billionaire Elon Musk, said in a statement that its new subscription method should “bolster” existing measures to lessen spam and “manipulation of our platform and bot activity.”
Under the trial, new web users in the Philippines and New Zealand will have to spend $0.75 and $0.85 to X, respectively, every year, to access basic functionality like posting on the site.
Those who refuse to pay the nominal fee will only have access to a “read-only” version of the platform X, restricting them to reading posts, watching videos, and following accounts, the company said.
It added, “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.”
Existing users in these nations are not affected.
Musk has made several controversial changes to the social media company’s management and product since he bought Twitter last year for $44 billion.
He recently floated the concept of charging all users a nominal fee to use the site in a bid to tackle fake accounts — drawing sharp criticism from users around the world.
