Subj : Elon Musk plans to charge new X users $1 to use the app, so I gue To : All From : TechnologyDaily Date : Wed Oct 18 2023 10:45:06 Elon Musk plans to charge new X users $1 to use the app, so I guess Im really done with Twitter now Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2023 09:28:22 +0000 Description: Elon Musk may be putting the final nail in Twitter/Xs coffin with plans to charge new users $1 to start tweeting. FULL STORY ====================================================================== Well, its finally happening. After months of promising (threatening?) to introduce mandatory fees to social media giant X (formerly known as Twitter), Elon Musk has actually done it: with the business apparently hemorrhaging money , new users will now have to pay a $1 fee to begin properly using the app. If youre a long-time Twitter/X user, dont panic: existing accounts wont be subject to any fees (yet). As reported by Fortune , the payment program, called 'Not A Bot', will only be put in place in New Zealand and the Philippines for now; but lets be honest: thats likely just the start. Non-paying new users wont be able to do, well, anything. You can follow people and view your feed, but the ability to tweet, retweet, reply, and DM other users will be locked behind the $1 paywall, which is in fact an annual subscription. Despite stepping down as X CEO , Musk has clearly championed this move, claiming that its the only way to fight bots without blocking real users. Time to deactivate, folks Xs support team claims that the move is a test and not a profit driver, and is instead geared towards combating bots and spam. But, quite frankly, I dont believe that for a second. Although new CEO Linda Yaccarino recently stated that ad revenue streams at X are experiencing a resurgence, its extremely hard to trust anything coming from the once-beloved social media titan at this point. After all, if battling bots and misinformation was Musks goal, why did X kill off third-party content moderation tools or fully remove a feature that allowed users to report fake news ? Why is Australias online safety regulator engaged in legal action against X because of a surge in hate speech on the platform? Why did the companys election integrity team get slashed in half earlier this year? X has been in trouble for a while now, and this probably won't help. (Image credit: Twitterific) I could go on, but in short: X has been a mess ever since Musk took over, and its only going to get worse. Stuff like the recent rate limit crisis portended doom for the platform, and Musks continual hacking away of useful features (like Twitter Circles ) hasnt done anything to restore my faith in what was once my favorite social media app. I genuinely mean that, by the way; Twitter was the perfect social media site for me, one of the only places where you could truly have a public conversation. But as our Editor-in-Chief Lance noted earlier this year, X cant become a town square if Elon Musk is in it . X feels like a cold, joyless husk of the vibrant platform Twitter once was. There's no way it stops at $1 a year, right? Plenty of useful features have already been shunted behind the X Premium paywall, too, so its hard to believe that we wont see Musks supposedly bot-beating fees spread to other regions (and existing user accounts). Musk previously floated the idea of a monthly $1 fee for all users, and its not hard to see how we could progress to that point from the current 'Not A Bot' plans. So Im done, I think. Ive already spent most of this year gradually diminishing my presence on X, somewhat subconsciously; I simply dont want to spend time on the app anymore. And I certainly dont want to hand over my credit card details to X, either - Musk has spent months yammering on about how he wants X to become an everything app that incorporates features like online shopping, fast food delivery, and taxi services. Obtaining users' financial information will no doubt be another paving slab on the road to that dubious goal. I didnt want an everything app, Mr Space Billionaire I just want my old, beloved Twitter back. ====================================================================== Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/computing/twitter/elon-musk-plans-to-charge-new-x-us ers-dollar1-to-use-the-app-so-i-guess-im-really-done-with-twitter-now --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 (Linux/64) * Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100) .