Billionaire Elon Musk has reportedly revealed plans to make people pay to use Twitter in the near future during a discussion around technology and artificial intelligence.
Speaking in a roundtable discussion with Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as physicist Max Tegmark and the president and co-founder of OpenAI, Greg Brockman, the group got on to the subject of Musk‘s current pet project: X, formerly known as Twitter.
The Space X and Tesla boss has been the owner of the social media platform since October 2022 and, as well as changing its name, has already made a number of tweaks, including limiting the number of tweets an account can view, to purging verified accounts and introducing a premium subscription model.
However, it now seems that charging people to ‘make the most of the site’ through the optional upgraded tier (initially named ‘Twitter Blue‘) is set to go even further as during the roundtable, Musk said that the company is moving towards having everyone make “a small monthly payment” to use X.
In fact, as the above article would suggest, it appears that the South African business magnate has long had designs on moving towards a full paywall model, explaining his primary reason in response to a question about AI and bots on Monday, 18 September.
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“We’re actually going to come out with lower tier pricing”, said Musk. “We want it to be just a small amount of money. In my view, this is actually the only defence against vast armies of bots.
“The single most important reason that we’re moving to having a small monthly payment for the use of the X system is that it’s the only way I can think of to combat vast armies of bots.”
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While it is true that Twitter/X is flooded with bots, it goes without saying that the reaction online hasn’t exactly been positive, with many remarking, “This app will die” if people have to pay; “RIP Twitter X or whatever he wants to call it” and countless other versions of the same, very simple answer: no.
I'm not going to pay for Twitter because I'm the fucking product, not the customer. Get it straight, you apartheid a-hole. pic.twitter.com/ty8Yf7fCAt
Expanding on his justification, Muks said this approach will combat AI accounts “because a bot costs a fraction of a penny, or a tenth of a penny, but if somebody even has to pay a few dollars or something, some minor amount, the effective cost of bots is very high, and then you also have to get a new payment method every time you have a new bot.”
Nevertheless, given the fact that there are currently around 640,000 X Premium subscribers — according to the most recent figures, anyway — out of an estimated 528.3 million monthly users, we’re going to guess you’ll find the majority aren’t willing to pay for what was once a free and fundamentally uncomplicated service.
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Would you ever be willing to pay for X (Twitter), or is this just yet another example of Elon Musk making this app way more complicated than it needs to be?
You can watch the full roundtable discussion below:
Manchester football fans warned of rise in resale ticket scams ahead of FA Cup final
Emily Sergeant
Manchester football fans are being warned of a rise in resale ticket scams ahead of the FA Cup final in a couple of weeks time.
History is repeating itself and tensions are building by the day, as Manchester United and Manchester City are facing each other in an all-Manchester final of the Emirates FA Cup at Wembley Stadium on Saturday 25 May.
And, to no surprise, it’s set to be a massive day for football fans in our football-obsessed city.
2023 was the first time the two Manchester clubs battled it out for the FA Cup title in the final in the 151-year-old football competition’s illustrious history, and it was victory for the Citizens, with the trophy was formed a crucial piece of their treble-winning season… but, in what seems to be a repeating turn of events, 2024 is the year of the re-match.
As you’d probably expect, once it was confirmed that United and City would face each other again in the FA Cup final this year, tickets for the match sold out instantly, and there’s only a handful of restricted view seats left now.
Despite Manchester City having even warned that any fans who are found to have resold their ticket will face a ban, there are, however, countless resale sites and individuals are flogging their seats online.
This is why the digital payment experts at takepayments are urging any fans hoping to travel from Manchester to London for the final to remain vigilant, and make sure they are armed with the knowledge and tips that’ll prevent them from falling for fraudulent ticket scams.
“The FA Cup Final is one of the most highly-anticipated matches of the season and there is always huge demand for tickets,” explained Jodie Wilkinson, who is the Head of Strategic Partnerships at takepayments.
“Unfortunately this means ticket touts will be looking to sell seats at inflated prices, as well as conning fans out of their money with fraudulent tickets, or stealing their bank details using a fake resale site.”
She explained that while buying tickets by credit or debit card does cover fans under Section 75 and Chargeback Rules – which is where their card provider could help recover the cost of goods or services if they do not receive what they paid for – paying cash for a ticket doesn’t have the same protection if the ticket ends up being unauthorised.
Research from Lloyds Bank ahead of the new football season last year revealed that the majority of football ticket scams tend to take place on social media platforms via bank transfers, but unfortunately, Jodie admitted that it can be “extremely difficult” to recover money lost from bank transfer scams, as in most cases, victims willingly transfer payment to a fraudster’s account.
“It’s important to only buy tickets from a secure ticket resale site and never send anyone you don’t know and have only spoken to on social media money,” Jodie concluded.
She also said that secure eCommerce websites will have “certain card payment security measures in place” to prevent people from getting scammed, and that fans should be aware of these security measures before making any payments.
Strong Customer Authentication (SCA), 3D Secure Authentication, and Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certifications, are some of the most common measures sites put in place.
More information on card payment security measures can be found on the takepayements website here.
Manchester United and Manchester City will battle it out to be crowned champions in the final of the Emirates FA Cup on Saturday 25 May.
Kick-off is at 3pm, and the game action is to be shown live on both BBC One and ITV.
Featured Image – The FA
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Parts of ‘extremely busy’ road into Manchester city centre to close for improvement works from this week
Emily Sergeant
Lane closures will be in place on an “extremely busy” road into Manchester city centre from this week, it has been confirmed.
As part of the ‘Streets For All’ programme being carried out across the city and wider Manchester borough by Manchester City Council, several road improvements are set to be introduced in Oldham Road between Bengal Street and Portland Street – which is just north of the city centre, and described as being “well-used” by the public.
The Council has confirmed that the project to improve the roads and footpaths along the “key road” in the Ancoats area is expected to begin today (13 May).
The first phase of the project starting from today will take up to three weeks to complete.
Some of the improvement works being carried out from today include the improving the safety of cycleways, improving crossings and footpaths across Oldham Road to provide additional safety to any pedestrians crossing, and the installing of new traffic signals at the junction of Oldham Road and Radium Street.
Single lane closures on both carriageways of Oldham Road, between Bengal Street and Poland Street, will be in place from this week while the first phase of the project is carried out.
Manchester City Council says it’s working with its partners to “minimise disruption” as best as possible, but is still advising that people plan their journeys ahead of time.
“As part of our ongoing work across the city, we are looking at ways to make journeys safer for all our residents and improve transport links along key transport arteries,” explained Councillor Tracey Rawlins, who is the Executive Member for Environment and Transport at Manchester City Council, ahead of the works commencing this week.
“The Oldham Road corridor is an extremely busy and well-used stretch of road, providing a link to Ancoats and the city centre, which is why it’s important that this work takes place.
“Updates will be provided as the work progresses, and as ever I’d advise people to plan their journey in advance to make sure any disruption can be minimised.”
According to the Council, the improvement scheme is expected to be completed by this autumn.