Twitter will start charging new users $1 a year

New users of Twitter (a.k.a. X) in New Zealand and the Philippines will have to pay $1 to access certain Twitter functions, including posting messages and retweeting, under a new policy aimed at cutting down the number of spam accounts on the platform. The "Not A Bot" policy was first reported by Fortune on Tuesday, October 17.

Existing Twitter users will not be affected, Twitter said in a statement confirming the new policy, which the company claims is "not a profit driver." "This new test was developed to bolster our already successful efforts to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform and bot activity, while balancing platform accessibility with the small fee amount."

Elon Musk, Twitter's owner, said the change is "the only way to fight bots without blocking real users" in a reply to another Twitter user. “This won’t stop bots completely, but it will be 1000X harder to manipulate the platform.” It is unclear when or if the new rules will expand to other countries.

Musk alluded to the new policy in a Twitter Space last month with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “It’s the single most important reason that we’re moving to having a small monthly payment for use of the X system,” he said. "A bot costs a fraction of a penny, but if somebody even has to pay a few dollars — or some minor amount — the effect of cost of bots is very high.”

Not long after Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, the company instituted a new premium tier called Twitter Blue offering additional features — including a verification badge — for $8 a month. 180,000 users were subscribed to the service as of February 2023.