Elon Musk’s X introduces paywalls to TweetDeck

X, formerly Twitter, has withdrawn users’ free access to TweetDeck, a tool that allows users to monitor multiple accounts and lists of users at once.

Elon Musk, X owner announced the change back in early July when he posted that the company would be launching “a new, improved version of TweetDeck,” saying that the new version will support longer posts, Twitter Spaces, polls, and the ability to post longer videos.

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Recently, users attempting to access the service, now rebranded as X Pro, were required to pay for X’s blue checkmark verification for an annual fee of $84.

According to the social media platform, TweetDeck provided users the ability to follow multiple feeds and lists simultaneously and to easily spin up a real-time news feed based on topics or geographic areas.

“It also allowed users to easily toggle between accounts, post across multiple handles, and schedule posts,” X said.

Twitter acquired TweetDeck for $40 million in 2011 but had done little to develop it in recent years. While Twitter integrated more multimedia formats into its primary product, such as live audio and video, TweetDeck remained primarily a text-based tool.