In a video call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Elon Musk announced a new round of (unpopular) changes on platform X, formerly Twitter. Users who have remained loyal to the platform even without the recognizable blue bird may be disappointed by the decision that it will soon start charging for the use of the system in order to, as he said in the conversation, fight against the ‘huge army of bots’.
He did not disclose what the fee would be or what exactly users would receive in return (other than the right to post), but it seems likely that he will implement the charge, especially considering that this is not the first time he has mentioned it.
Half a billion users
In addition to helping him in the war against bots, it will also improve the company’s revenues as they have halved since he took over the platform. In July, he confirmed that they still have a negative cash flow due to falling revenues and debt, and that they are aware that they need to make the business profitable as soon as possible.
In the conversation, Musk shared the information that X currently has 550 million monthly users who generate between 100 and 200 million posts daily, but it is unknown what share of this is made up of notorious bots.
Although he was supposed to talk with the Prime Minister about the development and regulation of artificial intelligence, Musk persistently returned to Twitter, or X. For him, it was an opportunity to reiterate that his platform does not tolerate hate speech and anti-Semitism, even though he himself has repeatedly posted comments that insulted and belittled various groups from transgender individuals to journalists, politicians, or critics of his work.
