Elon Musk Announces X Will Soon Require Payment From All Users

Elon Musk has talked about bringing a paywall structure to all X (formerly Twitter) users. Musk spoke about the need to fight against massive robot armies on X Live with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

This essentially means that X can become a paid platform for anyone who wants to use it. Musk’s reasons for making this drastic change have to do with X’s massive bot traffic, which he believes asking people to pay for the service will reduce bots’ impact on the platform. He mentioned that unlike the X Premium subscription, the platform has lower pricing for all users.

While he is categorical about making X a paid platform to prevent bots from taking over, it’s quite obvious that Musk has been on a mission to turn the platform around the money side. X has never been on the green side of profits, in fact Musk has claimed that the company’s revenue has fallen by more than 50 percent due to limited advertising and the heavy debt of the previous management.

There’s no denying that since Musk took over Twitter in October of last year, he’s changed the look and feel of the platform. He has even turned the whole product from the old Twitter into the very popular X brand. He brought the premium service to X to more countries, including benefits such as verified ID, edit button, hide likes on the platform and more.

X has already made it difficult for people to pay for its service, which costs up to Rs 900 a month in markets like India if you go for X Premium on Android, or Rs 650 a month when you use the service over the web. This isn’t the first time Musk has talked about paying X for all users, and this public statement this week suggests the move is imminent, as have all of Musk’s other decisions in recent months. And if that happens, X could likely see a significant drop in user base, especially from countries like India.