Social network X, formerly known as Twitter, announced Tuesday that it has started charging new users in New Zealand and the Philippines to use basic functions such as posting messages.
X, owned since last year by billionaire Elon Musk, said in a statement that its new subscription method should "reinforce" existing efforts to reduce spam and "manipulation of our platform and bot activity."
Under the trial, new users in the Philippines and New Zealand will have to pay X between $0.75 and $0.85, respectively, each year to access basic functionality such as posting to the site.
Those who refuse to pay the nominal fee will only have access to a "read-only" version of the platform, which will limit them to reading posts, watching videos and following accounts, according to the company.
“This will be a potentially powerful measure to help us combat bots and spammers on X, while balancing the accessibility of the platform with the small amount of the fee,” he added.
Existing users in these countries will not be affected.
Musk has made a series of controversial changes to the social network's management and products since acquiring Twitter last year for $44 billion.
He recently proposed the idea of charging all users a nominal fee to use the site, in an attempt to combat fake accounts, which drew harsh criticism from users around the world.
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