Elon Musk plans to charge X users a premium subscription fee

Elon Musk has announced that he will be charging new users a premium subscription fee in order to use all of the features on X, formally known as Twitter.

X will see a two-tiered subscription service for users to choose from.

Musk took to the platform to explain, "One is lower cost with all features, but no reduction in ads, and the other is more expensive but has no ads."

The entrepreneur took over the platform in October 2022 and has been trying to win back advertisers, who stopped buying ads after Musk fired employees and disbanded content moderation teams.

In an attempt to boost revenue, he has started charging new users $1 in New Zealand and the Philippines as a test case for accessing the platform.

If new users decide to opt out of subscribing they will only be able to take "read-only" actions, such as read posts, watch videos and follow accounts, the company stated on its website.

The subscription method, titled 'Not a Bot', is said to be put in place "to bolster our already significant efforts to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform and bot activity," according to the website. Subscribers will be charged $1 a year to post content, Like posts, Reply, Repost and Quote other accounts’ posts and Bookmark posts.

Musk started charging $8 a month for the 'Blue Check' subscription service and also offered discounts to companies to advertise on the platform in hopes of generating revenue.

Amidst facing heat for the lack of content moderation on the platform, the European Commission launched an investigation into illegal and harmful content following the spread of disinformation about the Hamas attack on Israel.