X (formerly Twitter) unveiled on Tuesday, Oct. 17, a new subscription method charging new web users in the Philippines and New Zealand a dollar annual fee (P42.51) in bolstering efforts “to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform and bot activity.”

“This will evaluate a potentially powerful measure to help us combat bots and spammers on X while balancing platform accessibility with the small fee amount,” its statement read.

According to the website, existing users will not be affected. New web accounts, however, must verify their phone numbers and pay the subscription plan to access the web version of the popular platform.

Those who wish to opt out of the subscription fee can only read posts, watch videos, and follow accounts but not post on the website.

In a The Verge report, their hunch over X’s subscription plan on the website was that “X has seen more bot activity from these regions than others, and that it’s much easier to create a bunch of fake accounts via the website.”