Washington. Elon Musk, owner of online platform X, has expressed the need to cut down on bots and said that X can charge a small monthly fee from all users.

Musk has made many changes in it after acquiring X for $44 billion in October 2022. After the acquisition they fired thousands of employees, offered every single paid premium option, and cut back on content moderation. The previously banned accounts of former US President Donald Trump and others were reinstated.

He said online platforms lost about half of their advertising revenue in July. Bots are common on X, run by computer programs rather than humans, where they may be used to promote political messages or racial violence.

Earlier on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised the issue of anti-Semitism during an online conversation with Musk and asked how its duplication and promotion could be prevented along with stopping the use of X-bots. Musk said in his response that the company is moving towards charging a small monthly fee for the use of X and in my view this is the only way we can combat the huge armies of bots.

He said that the cost of a bot is a fraction of a penny or even a tenth of a penny but if someone has to pay a few dollars, some nominal amount, then the effective cost of the bots will be very high and then you have to pay a fee every time. The new bot will also need to acquire a new payment method.

This conversation has been broadcast on X at a time when the Tesla tycoon is in a dispute with the US-based Jewish organization Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Musk has accused the ADL of making baseless accusations of anti-Semitism, which has scared away advertisers and hurt his company’s revenue. He has also threatened to sue the ADL for billions of dollars.