Why We’re Opting Out of X Premium

Remember the early promise of social media? It was simple; a level playing field where the best ideas rose on merit. A random post from a teenager in a small town could travel the world if it were sharp, funny, or insightful enough.

But somewhere along the way, this changed. Today, X Premium (Twitter’s paid version) promises “more impressions” for paying subscribers. In plain English, if you pay, your posts are shown to more people. That’s not different from running ads. It’s just paid reach in a shinier wrapper.

Paying X Makes Zero Sense!

We’ve never paid to get your attention, and never plan to. In Pranjal’s words, 

“If my thoughts reach you, I want it to be because you found them worth reading, not because I paid a platform to push them into your feed.”

The more we looked at what else “Premium” offers, the clearer it became. This isn’t about improving the platform; it’s about charging for things that should already be part of it. Take impersonation protection, for example. X is charging genuine users for protection against fake accounts. That isn’t a “perk”! It’s the platform’s most basic duty. Charging for it feels like an airline charging extra for seatbelts. 😤

And that’s not all! 

Here’s the bigger problem: when platforms sell reach, they aren’t just selling visibility, they’re deciding whose voices matter. Pay-to-reach turns conversations into auctions, replacing merit with money. 

And once that happens, the richest voices get louder, biased points of view get more traction, and the best ideas are restricted to the backdrop.

On The Flip Side…

We get that running a massive platform like X isn’t cheap. Maybe the argument is that premium fees help keep the platform alive without relying only on ads. Or, paying users are more “serious,” so their content should get priority.

In theory, it sounds reasonable. If a small fee can reduce spam, filter out bots, and improve the overall quality of posts, that’s a win. If it creates a sustainable revenue model that allows the platform to serve users better, even better.

But when the “fix” starts to tilt the playing field and put basic protections behind a paywall, it stops being a solution and starts being the problem.

The Ideal Case For Us?

In a fairer world, here’s what premium could do: 

• Genuinely add new capabilities that help creators create better content, without interfering with organic reach.

• Verification and impersonation protection could remain free and universal, because authenticity should never be paywalled.

• Paid features could focus on enhanced tools, not basic fairness; think better analytics, customisation, or advanced audience insights, not just “more views.”

And until then, we’ll stick to the deal social media promised us at the start: great ideas rise on merit, not on monthly fees. We trust the community we’ve built without shortcuts or gaming the system. 💚