X platform moving to monthly charges for users

Elon Musk has said that X, previously known as Twitter, is moving to introduce a "small monthly payment" for users of the social media platform in a bid to "combat vast armies of bots.”

In a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday broadcast live on X at the Tesla factory in Fremont, California, Musk explained his solution to avoid bots on the platform.

“A bot costs a fraction of a penny, call it a tenth of a penny. But if somebody even has to pay a few dollars or something, some minor amount, the effective cost to bots is very high,” he said.

Musk stressed that the X has 550 million monthly users and sees 100 million to 200 million posts per day excluding reposts.

Twitter’s blue tick, now called X Premium, currently costs $8 per month in the US.