Elon Musk’s X is piloting a market-specific pricing initiative that will require new, unverified accounts in New Zealand and the Philippines to sign up for a $1 annual subscription in order to post and interact on the site.

The new “Not A Bot” subscription method is billionaire Musk’s latest way of nudging users toward paying for the platform, following X’s premium blue checkmark offering, which has pricing starting at $8 a month. That method has so far struggled to attract paying users.

The “new test” currently only affects new users in the two markets, according to X, and is a way to “bolster our already successful efforts to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform and bot activity,” a post shared by the company said. “It is not a profit driver.”

Both countries are relatively small markets for the company, with less than 10% of New Zealanders on X, compared with 63% for Facebook. Only 3% of internet users in the Philippines are on the platform, compared with 85% for Facebook, according to Statcounter.

Bots — automated accounts able to interact with users or post content without human involvement — are sometimes utilized to push political agendas or sow misinformation. They are also used by companies to respond to requests or send alerts.

While the surprise rollout of the Not a Bot initiative stunned some users, many questioned the effectiveness of the plan.

Musk has long made battling bots a priority, expressing concerns about them making up a significant portion of X accounts.

Last year, Musk vowed to “defeat the spam bots or die trying.” During a conversation last month with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he said a payment system was the only way to effectively counter “vast armies of bots.”

On Wednesday, Musk was busy posting replies about the latest development on his X account. “It’s the only way,” he replied to one news article, while responding to another post about the plan potentially driving away users by writing, “still here, babe.”

Still, allegations of widespread misinformation, the reinstatement of previously banned accounts and lack of oversight following a series of chaotic mass firings have driven some users to quit the platform or switch to competitors like Meta’s Threads.

X has sought to revamp its offerings as it attempts to hold onto users. The platform recently entered into a partnership with pop culture icon and bitcoin enthusiast Paris Hilton and announced Wednesday that users in Japan — its second-largest market after the U.S. — would be able to join and create “communities,” which are forum-like spaces on the platform.

X’s large Japan user base has sometimes been attributed to the fact that the site was widely used by officials to send out real-time information following natural disasters, though regional authorities have recently gravitated away from the site.

Meanwhile, X is continuing to face regulatory blowback related to content circulating on the platform.

Earlier this week, Australian regulators slapped the platform with a fine for $610,500 in relation to a lack of action to stop the rampant proliferation of child sexual exploitation material across the site.

A glut of misinformation was reported on X in the wake of the Israel-Hamas conflict, with everything from video game clips and movie footage to old images of conflicts being shared and attached to false narratives. Last week, European Union regulators expressed concern that potentially illegal content continued to circulate on X despite authorities flagging it.

X is currently engaged in legal disputes with consulting and project management firms seeking millions worth of unpaid bills, while former employees have brought a class-action lawsuit that alleges the company has still not paid thousands of staffers at least $500 million in promised severance.

In an attempt to capitalize on disgruntled former X users, Threads is swiftly rolling out new features, including an edit function earlier this month.