Elon Musk has indicated that X, formerly known as Twitter, is preparing to charge all users for accessing the platform.
The X owner said erecting a paywall around the business would ward off the bots, or automated accounts, that have become a bugbear for Musk.
Speaking in a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, the Tesla CEO and world’s richest person suggested that X was going to charge its user base. Currently, Twitter only charges users for its subscription service X Premium, which offers perks such as a verified account checkmark and costs $11 a month in the US for iPhones and £11 in the UK.
He put in some, financed more, and got backers for the rest.
Some of his backers were involved with competing projects.
In addition, he and they will eventually be able to take a loss, which they can carry forward to reduce their future tax liability.
And while all that plays out, he gets to use it to empower fascism, which also will probably be used to make him more money via government contracts.
If ever the government tries to stop him, he can now claim free speech violations.