Elon Musk’s “X” Charges Some New Members an Annual Fee as Part of a Test

This week, Elon Musk’s platform, X, formerly known as Twitter, announced that a new experiment will be taking place.

New unverified users in New Zealand and the Philippines will be charged $1 as part of an annual fee test. 

“Users will get to post content, like, repost, reply, bookmark, and quote posts for paying that fee. New free users will just get a read-only account to look at posts and follow accounts,” TechCrunch reported. 

According to the company, this test was not designed to drive profits. The experiment is called “Not a Bot” and is designed to “reduce spam, manipulation of the platform, and bot activity.”

X previously introduced a subscription plan in which users pay $8 per month to access a verified account. The company reportedly is working on three premium subscription tiers with one being completed ad-free.