Elon Musk Announces X Monthly Subscription Fee From All 550 Million Users to Combat Proliferation

• Tesla boss Elon Musk and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke about artificial intelligence, antisemitism and Musk’s plans for X
• According to Musk, X will have a small monthly payment for the use of the X system; he said the platform now has 550 million monthly users
• Musk also defended himself against criticism that he and his social network spread hate speech

Tech mogul Elon Musk has provided a glimpse into his plans for X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, in a live-streamed conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Among the key revelations, Musk announced that X will introduce a small monthly payment.

Why X will introduce monthly fee

According to CNBC News, the X boss justified this move as a strategic response to combat the proliferation of bots on the platform.

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Bots, or automated accounts, have been a long-standing issue on social media platforms, often used to spread misinformation, spam or engage in malicious activities.

However, Musk did not provide specific information about how much the monthly fee would be or what additional features would be included in the subscription at the lowest tier.

X users react to Musk charging them

This left many curious about the financial implications for X's users and the extent to which this change would affect the platform's accessibility.

One X user ignited reactions after asking:

"If Musk does make all X users pay a fee, as he has just stated he will do no matter how small, will you be staying? will not be giving criminal access to my bank account for him to sell to Russian hackers for millions of dollars. I will shut my X account down."

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@Gazz1815:

"Nope. I'm out if that happens."

@AlwaysNcog52034:

"No and I have a strong feeling there are a lot of people who feel the same way I do. Elon was upset that he caused the company to lose money, half its value. I guess we'll see how much lower he can take it."

@Francis25302314:

"With you 100%, Musk won’t get one dollar from me. Twitter X will be no more."

@WWhitness

"Nope, will absolutely not pay - nor will the majority of people on here. There will be no one."

@Dixie202021:

"Nope. I'm out if he does this."

Elon Musk reveals plan to transform X

In a similar story reported by Briefly News, tech billionaire Elon Musk has some big plans for X, formerly known as Twitter. Musk announced how he will transform the social media platform into an "everything app" by including voice and video calling features in X's offering.

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The X owner took to his platform to announce the move on Thursday, 31 August, revealing that the feature will work on iOS, Android, Mac and PCs. No phone numbers will be needed to use the calling features.

Source: TUKO.co.ke