X (Formerly Twitter) announced that are testing a new program (called Not A Bot) for blocking bots and spammers that requires new users to pay a subscription of $1/year in order to post or interact with content.
Those who refuse to subscribe will have read-only access.
The new charge is said to be a way to reduce spam and bot activity.
A tweet announcing the change insists the fee is not meant to be a “profit driver.”
New users in two countries, the Philippines and New Zealand, were chosen to be subjects of the Not A Bot test.
What Is Not A Bot?
Not A Bot is a Beta Program, a test of a subscription plan for new users.
A Help Center page states that new X users in the two test countries are required to verify their phone number.
Successful verification then leads to the next step which is paying one dollar to interact with others on X.
The intent of the Not A Bot program is to weed out bots and reduce spam, a way to protect platform integrity in a manner that scales.