Crypto commentator ZachXBT criticized an annual payment that X now requires from new accounts.
ZachXBT wrote on April 15 that the brand new coverage is not going to remove bot account-driven scams as a result of “a whole lot of enterprise verified rip-off accounts” come on-line weekly. Scammers reportedly pay hundreds of {dollars} for the pretend accounts.
He stated that he’s not against Elon Musk’s administration of X however shouldn’t be assured that the social media platform understands the extent of the black marketplace for verified accounts.
He additionally warned that the coverage “kills consumer development.”
As proof of the widespread nature of rip-off accounts, ZachXBT posted a screenshot that includes a number of pretend accounts promising rewards associated to the interoperability protocol Wormhole. Lots of the pretend accounts had gold checkmarks beneath X’s present verification insurance policies.
Not a bot payment
X up to date its coverage on April 15 to require new customers to pay a small annual payment earlier than posting, liking, bookmarking, and replying as a spam-prevention measure.
In October 2023, the corporate started to check the coverage in New Zealand and the Philippines with a subscription mannequin referred to as “not a bot,” which included a $1 annual payment. The most recent replace extends an identical coverage to new customers in different areas.
Musk, who serves as CTO and govt chairman of X, confirmed and tried to justify the brand new coverage in a put up. He stated the brand new payment grants “write entry” on the positioning and referred to as the coverage the “solely solution to curb the relentless onslaught of bots.”
Musk linked the bot drawback to AI and troll farms however didn’t explicitly tackle the problem of crypto scams, which have brought about important losses to customers.
Public knowledge exhibits that crypto scams are extremely worthwhile. In October 2023, the US Federal Commerce Fee stated social media scams introduced in $2.7 billion over a multi-year interval. Crypto was concerned in 53% of investment-related social media scams within the first half of 2023.
The put up On-chain sleuth ZachXBT says X’s controversial ‘not a bot’ payment unlikely to remove scams appeared first on CryptoSlate.
