So much for free speech on X; Musk confirms new users must soon pay to post

jeffw@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 922 points –
So much for free speech on X; Musk confirms new users must soon pay to post
arstechnica.com
274

You are viewing a single comment

This is not going to stop bots.

here's hoping it stops site growth

Most people don't get out of bed for a dollar so no, it won't outside the usual 10-30% pareto ratio, which is probably already getting impacted by Xitter being run into the ground.

This will absolutely stop by far the most bots, because hostile governments like Russia and China use THOUSANDS of bots, having to pay $1 extra to maintain each bot, will be prohibitively expensive for those governments. Remember this can mean THOUSANDS in extra cost for those programs. No way either Russia or China will be able to afford that. So my guess is this will be 99.99% effective at preventing bots. The problem for Musk that he may not have foreseen is, the same will be true for MAGA racist anti LGBT propaganda bots. So now Twitter will go back to be dominated by liberals and socialists. Making it necessary for Musk to pay for another platform all over again, if he wants to have a free space to blurt his idiocy.

/s

You had me in the first 1/4, NGL

Yes I was joking, the real explanation is of course that most bots are made by underage kids that don't have access to credit cards, and can't afford $1 out of their allowance. 😋

Isn't that the started intent? Like adding a small roadblock or captcha.

I'm not saying I agree but the simple logic should work. It'll likely reduce the user base and still let bits in with cash to burn.

In theory, maybe. In practice, the bots might just pay and post anyway. If they can recoup those costs in the scam, it costs them basically nothing.

So bots pay to continue what they're doing, but Musky now gets money for it?

Ray Charles could see what's going on here.

This is what Craigslist did and now nobody uses it and we're forced to use the garbage platform that is Facebook Marketplace.