X, formerly Twitter, to charge 1 dollar from new users

New users in both New Zealand and the Philippines will need to pay a one-dollar annual subscription in order to tweet, retweet, and even comment on content on X (previously Twitter).Owner Elon Musk of the social media giant stated that the action is meant to lessen spam, manipulation on the network, and bot activity in a statement released on Wednesday, October 18, 2023.We're testing a new program (Not A Bot) in New Zealand and the Philippines starting today. To post and interact with other postings, new, unverified accounts will need to pay a $1 annual subscription. Existing users are unaffected by this test, the statement said in part. It further read, “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.”