X to begin charging new customers $1 per 12 months in two international locations

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 12 months for the privilege.

The subscription, a part of a so-called “Not A Bot” program, is starting in these two international locations and is designed to “bolster our already important efforts to cut back spam, manipulation of our platform and bot exercise,” X mentioned Tuesday in an unsigned post on its help center. As well as, new net customers in New Zealand and the Philippines should confirm their account with a cellphone quantity, the put up says. Fortune first reported that Musk was going to cost new customers $1 a 12 months shortly earlier than X’s announcement went dwell.

X’s put up doesn’t clarify why the brand new $1 subscription is just for new customers becoming a member of through the online and never the cell app, or why Not a Bot is just being rolled out in two international locations. 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,” akin to viewing posts and watching movies, based on the corporate.

This new program is along with X’s primary 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 proportion of customers are paying. In the meantime, he has been bragging about how time spent on X has by no means been greater.

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