Elon Musk is now tinkering with the idea to begin charging X/ Twitter users a fee to use the platform altogether, turning the extremely popular social media site into a paywall.
It wasn’t too long ago that Musk introduced the paid verification system, now called X Premium, a paid membership that unlocks various perks such as larger upload sizes, among other features inaccessible to unpaying users.
As shared by Bloomberg’s Dave Lee on the platform itself, Musk suggested the new paywall idea during an AI-focused conversation featuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, September 18.
“[We’re] moving to a small monthly payment for use of the X[/Twitter] system,” he told Netanyahu while stating this would be a feasible method to “stamp out bots” (as per Lee’s social media post).
Some details not revealed include when Musk plans to begin charging all users a fee to be on the platform, or how much said fee will be. However, it could be safe to assume that Musk’s plan is to make X/ Twitter’s current premium plan the paywall membership itself.
Currently, X Premium is $8 a month or $84 a year, which unlocks perks and features such as the blue checkmark, editing posts, prioritized rankings in conversations and search, longer posts, text formatting, and more.
It could also be safe to assume that a basic fee/membership will be introduced, one that allows users to use the platform but doesn’t unlock all features.
As aforementioned, no pricing or timing details have yet been shared by Musk, just that he is currently planning a paywalled future for X/ Twitter users.