DOnline platform X, formerly called Twitter, will soon no longer be free to use. Company owner Elon Musk said on Monday that he could envision all users being charged a “small” monthly fee in the future to take action against fake user accounts, called bots. “This is the only way I can think of to deal with huge armies of bots.”
Bots are user accounts that are controlled not by people, but by computer programs. There are many such auto-generated accounts on X that can be used to influence online discussions.
Creating and running bots currently costs “a fraction of a penny,” Musk said. So if accounts cost a few dollars, this will increase the cost of bots many times over. “And then you have to find a new payment method every time you have a new bot,” he continued.
Meeting with the head of the Israeli government
The multi-billionaire bought Twitter last year for $44 billion and has since significantly transformed the network. He laid off thousands of employees, introduced a paid premium offering, reduced active moderation of online content and lifted bans on controversial users such as former US President Donald Trump. In July, Musk said the company’s advertising revenue had halved since the acquisition.
On Monday, Musk met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The conversation, which was broadcast live on X, was about, among other things, anti-Semitism on the platform. Netanyahu specifically asked how X could stop “armies of bots” from stoking anti-Semitism in online debates.
Source: Frantfurter Allgemeine
Elizabeth Gray is a writer at the World Herald News. He covers trending news, and his name appears frequently in online search results for stories covering the latest developments in international politics and business.
