- New users on platform X will have the option to sign up for a small annual fee.
- Without this fee, users will be limited in the way they can interact on X.
- X stated that this would help reduce bots on the platform, despite experts claiming it won’t be effective.
- No indication that crypto will be available as a payment option at this stage.
On Wednesday, X made announcements about new sign-ups in New Zealand and the Philippines. Effective immediately, unverified accounts will be required to subscribe at US $1 ($1.58) annually to interact with other users. This move, currently being tested only in these two jurisdictions, aims to counter “spam, manipulation of the platform and bot activity, while balancing platform accessibility.”
X’s Fight Against Bots
Many users have complained about bots flooding the comments and replies on X after Elon Musk’s takeover of the platform. While X claims initial success after introducing X Premium, scammers seem to be happy to pay for services.
Samuel Woolley, Professor at the University of Texas said, “In fact, this is making Twitter a pay-for-play system, and we know that propagandists, people working to spread disinformation and other forms of manipulation via Twitter, are very much willing and able to finance their operations.”
Woolley said that most of the bad actors that social media companies are most concerned about, such as certain governments and extremist groups, have a lot of funds at their disposal.
This makes it questionable if the US $1 annually will make any difference at all. One could easily envision individuals fraudulently creating and paying for verified accounts that impersonate others, defeating the feature’s intent.
Self-proclaimed investigator ZachXBT commented on the news, noting that many bot accounts today have already secured verification checkmarks. He added that scammers on platforms like X/Twitter prefer having these checkmarks as it reduces the likelihood of their links being flagged.
ChainLink (LINK) Community ambassador ChainLinkGod.eth said, “The bot spam on the platform has gotten significantly worse, and they’re all verified accounts.”
According to the security platform CertiK Alert, scammers have made off with millions from hacks and attacks. This, of course, is what Musk and his team claim they want to reduce.
Crypto Not Included?
Crypto enthusiasts have speculated for many months that X will be incorporating crypto in some shape or form on the platform. Given Musk’s past support for crypto and tweets about Dogecoin (DOGE) that seemed a reasonable assumption. But so far there has been no statement about making payment through crypto available.
Many believed that it would involve either accepting crypto as a payment method or incorporating it in some manner into Musk’s vision of an ‘everything app.’
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