(DCWatchdog.com) – In a big decision that might backfire, billionaire Elon Musk has mentioned that the users of Twitter, now renamed X, will have to pay money every month to maintain their access to the social media platform.
Musk, the leader of X Corp., Tesla, and Space X, revealed that the former Twitter would become a paid service while he was in a livestream conversation with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Musk and Netanyahu discussed topics such as artificial intelligence and anti-Semitism, CNBC News reports. Their conversation comes as the billionaire has been in a conflict with the Anti-Defamation League, a leftist US Jewish human rights organization accusing him of allowing the spread of hate speech on X.
“[X is] moving to having a small monthly payment for use of the X system… [to fight the] vast armies of bots,” Musk said during the livestream.
The report points out that he mentioned no further details, such as the monthly cost of using his social media platform or what features the new universal subscription would offer.
The billionaire revealed that the former Twitter now has 550 million monthly users, who create between 100 million and 200 million posts daily. Yet, he didn’t specify what share of those were humans instead of bots.
Before Musk took over in May 2022, Twitter’s former management said the platform had an “average monetizable daily active usage” of 229 million users.
CNBC notes that his conversation with the Israeli leader “was meant to focus on theoretical risks of artificial intelligence technology” and the regulation of AI, but Musk “used it” to fight “the perception” that he tolerates anti-Semitism and hate speech on X.
The billionaire recently threatened a lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League, accusing it of trying to “kill” his social media platform.
“Musk has blamed the ADL, rather than his own business decisions, for a 60% drop in revenue at X and said he had ‘no choice’ but to file a defamation lawsuit against the group,” CNBC comments.
Before his conversation with Netanyahu, Musk declared that George Soros – described in the report as a “Hungarian-American Jewish philanthropist” – and his Open Society Foundation wanted to “destroy” Western Civilization.
