Pay-to-Post: The Future of Social Media
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Bots are constantly farming social media, creating fake engagement that, for many users, borders the line of digital harassment.
So, how do platforms plan to address this?
Scams are popping up left and right through phony comments or even threatening page or account deletion. It’s causing many people to drop platforms like Facebook in search of those better protected against bots and scammers.
X (formerly Twitter) is stepping up to the challenge with an unconventional and controversial plan to minimize the number of fake accounts.
Pay-to-post.
What does this mean for you?
Well, it would mean that if you start a new account on the platform, you would have to pay a small annual fee to be able to post.
While you could still view content on the platform, you wouldn’t be able to engage with it unless you paid real money.
Will it help?
Sure, it would provide some protection against the onslaught of bots and scams but it would also likely minimize the reach to your audience who doesn’t want to pay a dime to interact on a platform.
The number of people who consume but don’t engage is already high enough, imagine the spike in that number once people are required to pay.
Is there another way?
There’s also the discussion that the pay-to-post model might be bypassed if you’ve had an account for 3 months.
You wouldn’t be able to post for those few months but, after that, you’d be out of your probationary period and would then be allowed to engage.
This option begs the question — will it just be 3 months of peace only to return to the same issue we had before?
At this point, all of this is just speculation gleaned from a post from X Daily News and a response from Elon Musk.
Some users are upset at the possible change in policy while others are suggesting options such as ID verification as an alternative.
Social media has been a free way for individuals and businesses to connect globally but we do have to wonder:
How much longer will social media be free?
