It’s still just an idea from the billionaire, but the former Twitter is nowhere near as valuable as it once was
Controversies surrounding Elon Musk
Elon Musk is considered one of the richest people in the world but also one of the most controversial. There have been, among other things transphobic statements, accusations of anti-Semitism, because by his statement that Jewish investor George Soros “hates humanity,” he further fueled the conspiracy theory circulating around Soros and discussions around his attitude to “Free Speech.” For example he restricted Twitter use in Turkey in 2023 during the Turkish elections or filed a lawsuit against a non-profit organization that investigated hate speech on his platform X (formerly Twitter).
Twitter was once a successful social medium that even founded its own term: tweet (which, by the way, Musk had removed from the official terms of service).
It’s no secret that the rebranded network has since lost massive value. Musk himself claims that X has lost 90 percent of its value compared to Twitter, according to Yahoo Finance.
The advertisers are also staying away Instead of counteracting, Musk is making it even worse In fact, he borrowed $1 billion from his Space X company to pay Twitter in the first place, says (Forbes).
What could be more natural than making users pay monthly for X?
X as a monthly subscription?
In a live-streamed conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, Musk said the company was thinking about a small monthly payment
for using X.
LIVE: Speaking with @elonmusk about how we can harness the opportunities and mitigate the risks of AI for the good of civilization. https://t.co/XiAQwOXzcP
– Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) September 18, 2023
Musk’s explanation: He indicated that such a change was necessary to solve the problem of bots on the platform. A payment barrier would stop them from coming to the website.
The billionaire takes offense at the non-human users, who, according to him, use X as a platform to learn for themselves.
How much should X cost?
Whether and when a subscription model will come, or how much it might cost, Musk said nothing further about.
In the past, the platform has already charged for the blue verification hooks, which according to (Mashable) didn’t make the financial impact it wanted.
The idea with the monthly tariff is not new. Already last year Musk thought about a paywall, so (Platformer News).
Once again, Elon Musk is toying with the idea of further monetizing his social network and limiting access via a monthly pay model. Would you pay monthly for X – or any other social network? Do you think the sites should remain free to access? Feel free to post your opinions in the comments.
