X to start out charging new customers $1 per yr in two nations

If you wish to be a part of X, the service previously referred to as Twitter, through its web site in New Zealand and the Philippines, be ready to fork over $1 a yr for the privilege.

The subscription, a part of a so-called “Not A Bot” program, is starting in these two nations and is designed to “bolster our already important efforts to scale back spam, manipulation of our platform and bot exercise,” X mentioned Tuesday in an unsigned publish on its assist middle. As well as, new net customers in New Zealand and the Philippines should confirm their account with a cellphone quantity, the publish says. Fortune first reported that Musk was going to cost new customers $1 a yr shortly earlier than X’s announcement went stay.

X’s publish doesn’t clarify why the brand new $1 subscription is just for new customers becoming a member of through the online and never the cellular app, or why Not a Bot is simply being rolled out in two nations. A guess could be that X has seen extra bot exercise from these areas than others, and that it’s a lot simpler to create a bunch of faux accounts through the web site. “New customers who choose out of subscribing will solely be capable to take ‘learn solely’ actions,” similar to viewing posts and watching movies, based on the corporate.

This new program is along with X’s major subscription of $8 a month. Musk has been clear from the start of his Twitter takeover that he thinks charging will impede bot armies, although it’s estimated {that a} very, very small share of customers are paying. In the meantime, he has been bragging about how time spent on X has by no means been larger.

Replace October seventeenth, 8:34PM ET: Added publish from Elon Musk.