The Morning After: X starts charging new users $1 per year to send tweets
After weeks of speculation, X has confirmed it will charge new users for the service previously known as Twitter. The company shared details about a new subscription called Not a Bot, which it's currently testing in New Zealand and the Philippines. The subscription requires new users to pay the equivalent of $1 USD per year to post. As of October 17, 2023, we've started testing Not A Bot, a new subscription method for new users in two countries," X explained.
X also announced major changes to its crowd-sourced fact-checking tool, to stem the flow of misinformation. The company now requires volunteer contributors to include sources on every community note they write. X announced the change after Wired reported that some community notes contributors are worried the tool is being manipulated by bad actors, worsening X's misinformation problems amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. European Union officials have already raised concerns, pointing to the viral spread of video game footage and other unrelated content falsely claiming to depict scenes from the conflict.
Following Musk's purchase of Twitter, now X, the company cut the teams responsible for curating reputable information about breaking news events, removed misinformation-reporting tools and slashed safety team staffing. Requiring a linked source may be X's attempt to increase the quality of its notes, but there are still no guidelines about the types of sources that can be cited.
- Mat Smith
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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-morning-after-x-starts-charging-new-users-1-per-year-to-send-tweets-111548967.html?src=rss