ELON Musk has continued with changes to X, formerly Twitter, by putting the widely used TweetDeck function behind a paywall.
Popular with journalists and many others, TweetDeck allowed users to view a wide variety of content at the same time in a grid format.
As of Thursday, users will now have to pay over £100 a year for a premium package to access TweetDeck, now rebranded as XPro.
Premium users also get the famous blue tick, once a coveted status symbol for users with a large following.
In 2011, Twitter had originally paid $40 million (£31.4m) for TweetDeck but have done little to develop it in recent years.
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Speaking to the Washington Post, independent journalist Judd Legum said he was angered by the latest change, but the lack of an alternative meant he would not yet rule out paying for the service.
“As far as Elon Musk goes, it fits a pattern of him just making the service worse,” he said.
“He keeps taking away things instead of adding things. TweetDeck is another example of something that had a lot of value for people that’s taken away.”
He added: “What TweetDeck allows you to do as a journalist is take control of the information you’re getting and really specifically drill down into a topic before it is trending.”
It remains to be seen if Elon Musk's gamble will pay off or if rival tech billionaire Mark Zuckerberg will develop an alternative on his recently launched Threads platform.
The rivalry has even extended into the bizarre prospect of a cage fight between the two, but Zuckerberg said earlier this month he no longer believed Musk was serious.
”I think we can all agree Elon isn’t serious and it’s time to move on," he said on Threads.
“I offered a real date. Dana White (UFC boss) offered to make this a legit competition for charity.
“Elon won’t confirm a date, then says he needs surgery, and now asks to do a practice round in my backyard instead.
“If Elon ever gets serious about a real date and official event, he knows how to reach me.
"Otherwise, time to move on. I’m going to focus on competing with people who take the sport seriously.”
Mr Musk had previously suggested the fight should take place in an "epic location" in Italy and suggested options for livestreaming the event.
