Read up on the full press release here with commentary from Mediavision’s senior analyst Fredrik Liljeqvist.

The social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, may introduce a monthly charge for all platform users. The company owner Elon Musk said this in a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

Musk said that X was “moving to a small monthly payment” for the use of the social media platform. He suggested that such change would be necessary to deal with the problem of bots on X. Bots are automated accounts that are run by a computer program instead of humans, and it is a widespread phenomenon for X.

“It’s the only way I can think of to combat vast armies of bots. Because a bot costs a fraction of a penny — call it a tenth of a penny — but even if it must pay…a few dollars or something, the effective cost of bots is very high. Plus, every time a bot creator wanted to make another bot, they would need another new payment method.” Elon Musk said.

Since Musk bought the company last year, he has made several changes. One is the introduction of a premium subscription service called Twitter Blue at the time of the launch. Now, after the rebranding of Twitter to X, it is called X Premium.

X Premium costs EUR 11 monthly and gives the users a blue checkmark to its profile, as well as a range of other additional features. The subscription service was intended to crack down against bots on the platform, as well as providing a new revenue stream for the company. However, the uptake of X Premium has remained low, and it has not been the solution to combat bots as X initially hoped.

Musk did not specify the date of the eventual launch of monthly payment, nor did he provide details regarding the cost of the subscription. However, he described it as a “small amount of money.”

The Bytedance owned social media platform Tiktok has received a EUR 345 million fine for violating the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This was announced by the Irish data protection authority DPC on Friday.

The decision is based on an investigation initiated in 2021 into Tiktok’s agreement with GDPR and how the platform handles age verification systems and data from children aged 13-17. The Irish data protection authority DPC criticizes, among other things, Tiktok’s public settings and lack of transparency.

The social media platform says it has several objections to the decision, especially the size of the fine. Tiktok’s Nordic communications manager Parisa Khosravi commented that “The Data Inspectorate’s criticism focuses on functions and settings that we fixed long before the investigation began and were in place three years ago, for example that all accounts belonging to people under the age of 16 are private by default.”

The reach of Tiktok has increased throughout the Nordics over the past years. In Sweden, Tiktok reached close to 10 percent of the 15-74-year-olds on an average day during Q2 2023. This is a 30 percent increase compared to the same period last year. This is concluded in Mediavision’s newly published Insight: TV & Streaming.

Markant flere husstande har en internetforbundet tv-enhed – Mediawatch

Research: Streaming heightens demand for connected devices – Advanced Television

Trots krisen – betalningsviljan för rörligt ökar – Dagens Media

Svenskarnas kontodelning kostar jättarna nära 1 miljard kronor – Dagens Industri

Svensk login-deling koster streamingudbydere over en halv milliard årligt – Mediawatch

Trendbrott: Fler svenskar piratkopierar film och tv – Dagens Nyheter

Poll: Illegal streaming on the rise in Nordic countries – Yle