PUNCH
Online platform X could introduce a monthly fee for all users, its owner Elon Musk said Monday, citing the need to cut down on bots.
The tech tycoon has made multiple changes since taking over the site for $44 billion in October last year, when it was known as Twitter.
He has fired thousands of employees, introduced a paid premium option, cut content moderation and reinstated formerly banned accounts including that of former US president Donald Trump.
He said in July the platform had lost roughly half its advertising revenue.
Bots — accounts run by computer programs rather than humans — are common on X, where they can be used to artificially amplify political messages or racial hatred.
During a talk with Musk on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised the question of online anti-Semitism, and how X could “prevent the use of bots — armies of bots — to replicate and amplify it.”
Musk replied that the company was “moving to having a small monthly payment for use of the X system.”
