Everyone Will Soon Have To Pay Monthly Fee To Use Twitter, Musk Announces

Formerly known as Twitter until its new owner Elon Musk unpopularly changed it to ‘X’, the platform already offers a premium subscription costing £9.60 a month, which gives users a verification tick – whilst not asking for any form of ID to verify. But it appears that soon EVERYONE will have to pay to use the app. 

NBC News reports the billionaire businessman, who renamed the platform to X, revealed on a live stream that the company would introduce a “small monthly payment” to combat “vast armies of bots”.

Musk has long complained about the presence of fake accounts on the platform, and tried to use his concerns to wriggle out of his deal to buy it last year.

It is understood, however, that this is likely simply another ploy to try to claw back cash, with the app making a significant monthly financial loss. Previously, Musk promised that the ‘pay-for-a-blue-tick’ feature would also reduce the number of bots on the site. However, due to the fact that users do not need to prove their identity when buying a blue tick, the issue remains unaddressed.

He did not offer further details about the new fee, such as a price or whether it would include extra features.

Sky News has contacted X for comment, though its press office is largely unresponsive.

The move would kill off what has long been one of the site’s most popular memes, where users caption shots of particularly striking posts with a near-incredulous “this website is free”.

X already offers a premium subscription costing £9.60 a month, which gives users a verification tick, lets them write longer posts and edit existing ones, and prioritises their account in search results.

Musk spoke about the plans in a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, where the Tesla and SpaceX owner sought to address criticism over his running of the platform.

Since buying Twitter for $44bn (£38bn), the self-described “free speech absolutist” has been accused of allowing disinformation, racism, misogyny, and antisemitism to thrive.

He has also reinstated previously banned accounts like those of Donald Trump and Andrew Tate.

Last month, the platform was criticised for taking several days to remove posts promoting Holocaust denial, despite being repeatedly highlighted by the Auschwitz Museum.

Musk, who has threatened to sue groups like the Anti Defamation League and Center for Countering Digital Hate for criticising his leadership of X, claimed he was “against attacking any group”.

Referencing his ambition to colonise Mars, he said humanity would never become “a spacefaring civilisation” if “infighting” and “hatred” were allowed to thrive.

That said, there has been a demonstrable significant rise in hate and racism on Twitter since Musk’s takeover, including Twitter refusing to remove accounts breaking its own rules on hate and dangerous disinformation.

Last month, the billionaire was heavily criticised for defending and reinstating a conspiracy theorist who had posted images containing child pornography.