Elon Musk on Monday mentioned his on-line platform X might introduce a month-to-month charge for all customers, citing the necessity to reduce down on bots.
The tech tycoon has made a number of modifications since taking up the positioning for $44 billion in October final 12 months, when it was generally known as Twitter.
Musk has fired 1000’s of workers, launched a paid premium possibility, reduce content material moderation and reinstated previously banned accounts together with that of former U.S. president Donald Trump.
He mentioned in July the platform had misplaced roughly half its promoting income.
Bots – accounts run by laptop packages reasonably than people – are widespread on X, the place they can be utilized to artificially amplify political messages or racial hatred.
Throughout a chat with Musk on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised the query of on-line anti-Semitism, and the way X might “stop the usage of bots – armies of bots – to duplicate and amplify it.”
Musk replied that the corporate was “shifting to having a small month-to-month fee to be used of the X system.”
“It is the one means I can consider to fight huge armies of bots,” he mentioned.
“As a result of a bot prices a fraction of a penny – name it a tenth of a penny – but when anyone even has to pay a couple of {dollars}, some minor quantity, the efficient value of bots could be very excessive.
“And then you definitely additionally need to get a brand new fee technique each time you have got a brand new bot.”
The dialog, which was broadcast on X, got here because the Tesla tycoon is mired in a row with the Anti-Defamation League, a U.S.-based Jewish group.
Musk has accused the ADL of constructing unfounded accusations of anti-Semitism which have scared away advertisers and damage his firm’s income and has threatened to sue for billions of {dollars}.