Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, is considering charging a monthly fee to use social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
deadline report In a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Musk said he wanted to introduce a fee because “that’s the only way I can think of to combat this horde of bots.” The owner of X continues: It’s a long discussion, but in my opinion this is the only defense against vast hordes of bots. Because as AI gets very good, it will actually be able to pass this kind of his CAPTCHA test better than humans. ”
Musk has been battling bots since he bought Twitter and renamed the platform X, but his motive for charging a monthly fee is more money, specifically lost advertising revenue. According to Deadline, X is facing a 50% drop in advertising revenue and significant debt. It’s unclear whether Elon Musk’s proposed monthly fee would apply to people who simply want to read X’s posts rather than posting them themselves, or whether it would apply to everyone. Musk suggested the price would be lower than the current $8 per month Twitter Blue premium subscription service.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urges Elon Musk to fight anti-Semitism on X/Twitter
In the same interview, Prime Minister Netanyahu encouraged Mr. Musk to continue condemning anti-Semitism regarding X. “That does not prevent you from coming out in every possible forum and condemning anti-Semitism,” the Israeli prime minister said. He asked Musk if it was possible to eliminate bots. “So at least if you have a crazy man and a hateful man, let him speak for you and not a fake army of millions.” Musk responded, “Exactly.”
In August, while getting his account reinstated, Musk threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League over “baseless accusations” of widespread anti-Semitism on X. “What’s alarming is the rise of anti-Semitism across the country,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt told CNN. “You have to look at the big picture here. Literally, anti-Semitism in the United States is at historic levels. These are the highest numbers in 40-odd years of tracking.”
In an interview with Prime Minister Netanyahu, Musk said:
“Freedom of speech sometimes means people you don’t like are saying things you don’t like. If you don’t have that, it’s not free speech. That doesn’t mean we should impose it on the X platform, because if it’s not interesting, fun, and engaging, we’ll lose users. If people find our system unpleasant, they won’t want to use it. I guess.”
according to forbesMusk is worth $262.8 billion at the time of writing.
