Elon Musk Considering Paywall for New X Users to Fight the Bots

As spam bots persist on X, Elon Musk is considering charging a fee for new users to activate the social media platform’s posting function. In reply to an X account that posted about changes on the social platform, the billionaire X owner on Monday argued that charging a “small fee” to new accounts was the “only way” to stop the “onslaught of bots.” “Current AI (and troll farms) can pass ‘are you a bot’ with ease,” he said, referring to existing anti-spam, anti-bot tests like CAPTCHA. While replying to another user, Mr. Musk explained that new users may choose to not pay a fee but will have to wait for three months to be able to post....