X's New Era: The Dollar Fee

Since the tech magnate Elon Musk bought Twitter for USD 44 Billion rebranding as X there has been a suite of ill-conceived moves from sign take downs to broken LED lights. The biggest gaff was when Elon walked into Twitter HQ carrying a kitchen sink.

Twitter or more so now X has in fact had a long history of suffering bot attacks and many false accounts created from other nations frequently are used to impact elections across many nations. A recent investigation identified Twitter/X to be approving bot accounts and it has been a focus of many governments across the world.

The other more alarming issue that Bots bring are the scams and misinformation that they spread across the platform. Many innocent people have been caught out by Twitter scams which also saw them increase in 2021 throughout the pandemic focusing on Crypto Currency scams.

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Use of Bots and their impact

Bots have always been around but we are starting to see them implemented as political weapons in the attempt to sway public opinion. Most recently it appears that an alt right politician was locked in a battle with a user who asses polling data. While the two engaged in light banter the polling assessor had his account hit by Bot's trying to sway public opinion in that what he was assessing was false.

While logic applies to many and we can all see the data and make our decisions, there are many who are unable to logically read and assess data, instead follow "packs". Which is what these Bot attacks are designed to do. Provide a false view of what is popular as many people want to follow the herd and not think for themselves. So if they perceive something to be the popular majority they will by default side with it.

So while misinformation and bots are blamed it isn't the core issue, the core issue is people unable to make their own decisions and default to a position of "what is everyone else saying and doing?". This can be viewed with the many bot accounts having odd names like Unclebenscat or User5648000091 and things that are not human. But people rarely click and do background checks.

Twitter User Fee

In a move that is almost unheard of Twitter or X will be rolling out USD1 fee to use their platform in an attempt to cut down the use of bots on their service. Elon has stated that in trials oversees it has seen a reduction in bots being used on it's services.

With 528.3 million monthly users it is uncertain how many are bots and how many are real people and the introduction of the fee is to be set to deter the creation of bots and create a more human centric platform. However, it is important to note there is no information on who is currently behind the bot creation and quite often these a fee for use services with other service providers.

The likely outcome is that the bots will remain as Elon hasn't discussed if there will be a KYC approach or simply a 1USD charge than anyone can pay. This will then no doubt either increase the costs of the bot services or retain the ones that are currently on the system.

When we correlate the financial spend of campaigns in politics and public debate these things are in the billions and bot attacks have been a successful way to upheave sects of the community and cause division. With a service that works to destabilise politics or public opinion I can't see the 1 USD fee being of too concern to those willing to part with a few hundred dollars to run bot accounts.

X the Platform for the Elite

More so than not the likely introduction of a 1 USD fee will cause Twitter/X to become an elite platform. While 1 USD might not seem much in many nations across the world that can be as much as a weekly income for a family. This means the people that need a political voice the most to raise advocacy for their living conditions or how geopolitics is impacting them are automatically cast out of a global platform.

X will become a place of people who want to promote themselves, can afford to do so and are willing to pay the fee. So while the core focus of Elon's idea was to impact bots it is a step in the wrong direction because he will be helping the bots by reducing the global voice which is the goal of these bots to begin with.

A far more successful way to tackle the bot issue is to run diagnostics and locate the people who are using them and what they are using them for. A far easier move on the backend of the UI he could than expose the culprits or simply just ban them.

This makes us wonder what the true motives are of the 1 USD fee, to end bots or to get a cut in on the action?

What are your thoughts?

Images sources provided supplemented by Canva Pro Subscription. This is not financial advice and readers are advised to seek professional financial services.

Posted Using InLeo Alpha

Posted Using InLeo Alpha