Elon Musk’s latest move on X (formerly Twitter) to address spam bots is introducing a “Verified-User-Only Post Replies” option, now live on the platform.
What Happened: Musk’s apparent battle against spam bots on X has taken a new turn with the launch of the “Verified-User-Only Post Replies” option. This feature allows users to restrict responses to their posts exclusively to accounts with verified status.
Until now, X has provided users with three reply control options, but this addition introduces a more exclusive layer. Limiting post replies to verified users has raised questions about its potential impact on the platform’s broader user base.
Musk has endorsed this development as a means to combat bots. Last month, he hinted that charging a small monthly fee to all users will deter bot activity. However, reports indicate that bots still accounted for a notable portion of ad traffic on the platform in recent quarters.
It was previously reported that a significant portion of X’s user base never posts anything, with most of the platform’s engagement stemming from replies, re-posts, and quotes. By restricting replies to verified users, X risks reducing posts’ overall engagement and visibility for most users.
Additionally, only a fraction of X users subscribe to its Premium package, making the option to limit replies to paying members somewhat exclusive. This move may be part of X’s broader strategy to incentivize Premium subscriptions, previously known as “Twitter Blue.”
Why It’s Important: It is pertinent to note that the tech billionaire has long been making promises to defeat spam and bots.
Even before acquiring Twitter, now rebranded as X for $44 billion, he had said, “We will defeat the spam bots or die trying!”
Earlier, when disclosing the rationale behind relaunching Twitter Blue, now called X Premium, Musk said, “We aren’t doing well at surfacing tweets from less prominent handles, as it’s almost impossible to distinguish between authentic humans vs bots/trolls.”
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