Elon Musk teases new Twitter subscription service with 'no ads' and 'lower cost'

20 October 2023 , 13:39

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Since Elon Musk took over Twitter last year, the company's revenue has dropped significantly. (Image: PA Wire/PA Images)

Elon Musk, the boss of Tesla and SpaceX, has announced that X, previously known as Twitter, will soon offer an ad-free version of its X Premium subscription.

He said there will be a "lower cost" version of Premium with all the features but "no reduction in ads", and a pricier version without ads. However, he didn't reveal the costs or launch dates for these new tiers.

X Premium, costing just over £9 a month, offers users a verification badge, the ability to edit posts after sending them, and the chance to post longer text and video content.

Since Musk took over Twitter last year, the company's revenue has dropped significantly as advertisers left due to concerns about his approach to content moderation and free speech.

Last week, the European Union started investigating the platform for its handling of disinformation and harmful content related to the Israel-Hamas conflict.

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With the decline in advertising, X is now focusing on subscriptions for income. The company recently started a trial in New Zealand and the Philippines where new users are asked to pay an annual fee of one US dollar (83p) to post and reply to others.

Musk hinted at such a feature last month, suggesting that eventually all users could be asked to pay in order to keep using the platform.

He has previously suggested that asking users to pay to post is the best way to combat bot and spam accounts, arguing that forcing users to enter credit card details would dissuade many bad actors running bot networks from using the site.

* An AI tool was used to add an extra layer to the editing process for this story. You can report any errors to [email protected]

Steve Charnock