In a dampener for new X users, Elon Musk has announced they may be charged for posting content on the social platform.

In reply to an X user, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO said that unfortunately, “a small fee for new user write access is the only way to curb the relentless onslaught of bots.”

“Current AI (and troll farms) can pass ‘are you a bot’ with ease,” Musk posted.

He further said that the onslaught of fake accounts also uses up the available namespace, “so many good handles are taken as a result”.

“That is way harder than paying a tiny fee. This is only for new users. They will be able to do write actions for free after 3 months,” the billionaire elaborated.

In October last year, the platform began charging new unverified users $1 per year in New Zealand and the Philippines.

Earlier this month, Musk-led platform announced a mega purge of spam accounts.

Several X users lost followers as the social media platform kicked off the exercise to remove bots.

The action came as spam and porn bots swarmed the platform in the past few months, leaving users flummoxed.

Musk had announced that a system purge of bots and trolls was underway.

X has not shared about how many bots are currently there on the platform.