The social network
The tech mogul has made many changes since he took over the network for $44 billion in October last year, when it was known as Twitter.
It laid off thousands of employees, introduced a paid option, removed content moderation and reinstated previously banned accounts, including that of former US President Donald Trump.
In July, it said the platform had lost about half of its advertising revenue. Bots (accounts managed by computer programs rather than humans) are common on X, where they can be used to artificially amplify political messages or fan the flames of racial hatred.
In an interview with Musk on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised the issue of online anti-Semitism and how X could “prevent the use of robots (robot armies) to reproduce and amplify it.”
Musk responded that the company was “moving toward a small monthly payment for using System X.”
“It’s the only way I can think of to fight huge armies of robots,” he said. “Because a robot costs a fraction of a cent – call it a tenth of a cent – but if someone has to pay even a few dollars, a smaller amount, the effective cost of robots is very high.”
“And then you also have to have a new payment method every time you have a new bot.”
The conversation, which was broadcast by
Musk accused the ADL of making unfounded accusations of anti-Semitism that drove away advertisers and hurt his company’s revenue, and threatened to sue it for billions of dollars.
