Xitter wants your credit card info. Not because even clawing $1 from someone's hands will help the business, but rather to ensure new users are "real people." Xitter's owner has famously been angry about bots, attempting to use bot counting as a way out of purchasing the rapidly declining in value social media network.
With this change, new users will be required to provide a credit card account number to pay for their new account, or just not make one. It seems Xitter's new user registration will drop to all-time lows.
In a statement published shortly after Fortune reported the news of the $1 plan, X 's support account confirmed the details and described the move as a way to curb the prevalence of bots and spam on the platform, rather than a money-making endeavor. "This new test was developed to bolster our already successful efforts to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform, and bot activity, while balancing platform accessibility with the small fee amount. It is not a profit driver," the company said.
The $1 annual charge is only for new users, and does not apply to existing users. It's unclear if, or when, the payment plan will be expanded to users in other countries. The program is also different from X Premium, which offers extra features like "undo" and "edit" for posts for $8 a month.
