{"id":511744,"date":"2023-10-18T07:36:25","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T05:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=511744"},"modified":"2023-10-18T19:50:34","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T17:50:34","slug":"twitter-starts-charging-new-users-for-basic-features","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/internet\/511744-twitter-starts-charging-new-users-for-basic-features.html","title":{"rendered":"Twitter tests charging new users $1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, began testing a $1 (R19) annual subscription fee for new accounts on the web that want to post or interact with other users, saying the measure has the potential to reduce spam, automated bot accounts and manipulation of its service.<\/p>\n<p>The test, called \u201cNot a Bot,\u201d rolled out in New Zealand and the Philippines, X said in a\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/help.twitter.com\/en\/using-x\/not-a-bot\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">blog post<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>New users who don\u2019t pay the fee won\u2019t be able to take certain actions on the site, including writing posts, liking, replying or bookmarking.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Starting today, we&#8217;re testing a new program (Not A Bot) 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 &amp; interact with other posts. Within this test, existing users are not affected.<\/p>\n<p>This\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Support (@Support) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Support\/status\/1714429406192582896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 17, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis will evaluate a potentially powerful measure to help us combat bots and spammers on X, while balancing platform accessibility with the small fee amount,\u201d according to the blog post. \u201cWithin this test, existing users are not affected.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The San Francisco-based company has been on the hunt for new revenue sources since billionaire Elon Musk\u2019s chaotic takeover last year, which saddled it with $13 billion in debt and drove away advertisers concerned about loosening content-safety rules.<\/p>\n<p>X owes about $1.2 billion in interest payments per year on its acquisition-related debt, Bloomberg\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2023-01-18\/elon-musk-has-more-to-lose-if-he-tries-to-skip-twitter-debt-payment\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">earlier estimated<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>To reinvigorate growth, X plans to test three tiers of its premium service, and will launch additional features that could generate revenue such as shopping and payments, chief executive officer Linda Yaccarino <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2023-10-05\/x-tells-bankers-that-advertisers-are-back-but-spending-less\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">told<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0bankers earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>X\u2019s premium plan, which currently costs $7.99 a month, would be split into tiers that would let the company charge customers different amounts depending on how many ads they\u2019re shown.<\/p>\n<p>New X users in the two test markets will have to subscribe to either the \u201cNot a Bot\u201d program or an X Premium tier, known for giving paying customers blue check marks, in order to write and interact with posts.<\/p>\n<p>Social media sites have previously cited the Philippines as a hot spot for fake accounts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRead for free, but $1\/year to write,\u201d Musk\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/elonmusk\/status\/1714437136575807979?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">posted<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0on X following the announcement. \u201cIt\u2019s the only way to fight bots without blocking real users.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fortune\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2023\/10\/17\/twitter-x-charging-new-users-1-dollar-year-to-tweet\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reported earlier<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0on the $1-a-year plan.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"my-4\">Now read: <a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/internet\/510830-verified-twitter-users-can-now-block-non-verified-users-from-replying-to-posts.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">Verified Twitter users can now block non-verified users from replying to posts<\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Elon Musk-owned social media platform is testing a $1 (R19) annual subscription as part of its efforts to combat spam bots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":467113,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[11373,15265,90092,405,81769],"class_list":["post-511744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","tag-elon-musk","tag-new-zealand","tag-philippines","tag-twitter","tag-x-app"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511744"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511744"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":511812,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511744\/revisions\/511812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}