Twitter puts strict cap on how many tweets users can read each day
Twitter has recently introduced stricter limits on the number of tweets users can view each day. In an announcement on Saturday, Elon Musk revealed that unverified accounts will now only be able to read 600 posts per day, while new accounts have been restricted to just 300 tweets daily. However, verified accounts are still permitted to view up to 6,000 posts per day. This means that for most users, unless they opt for the paid Twitter Blue service, they will only have around a minute or two before encountering an "rate limit exceeded" error. Interestingly, less than two hours later, Musk stated that Twitter plans to increase the limits for verified accounts to 8,000 and for non-Twitter Blue users to 800 in the near future.
In order to tackle excessive data extraction and manipulation of our system, we have implemented the following temporary restrictions:
- Confirmed accounts have a cap of 6000 posts per day for browsing purposes. - Unconfirmed accounts are restricted to 600 posts per day for reading content. - Freshly created unverified accounts have a limit of 300 posts per day.
Musk stated that the limits imposed were temporary measures to address the problem of excessive data extraction and manipulation of the system. The day before, Twitter had restricted non-logged in users from viewing tweets. Similar to the usage limit, Musk assures that the login restriction is also temporary and has been implemented to counter data extractors. Musk mentioned that there were numerous organizations, potentially even more, that were aggressively extracting data from Twitter, which was negatively impacting the user experience. He further claimed that almost every AI company was extracting data from Twitter to train their models. Musk expressed his frustration at having to allocate a significant number of servers urgently to support the exorbitant valuations of AI startups.
Musk has not clarified the meaning of "new" in the context of an account, and he has not revealed the duration of Twitter's current user restrictions. He has also not addressed whether viewing ads will contribute to a user's view limit. In any case, these restrictions greatly hinder the usability of Twitter, making it challenging to verify the authenticity of tweeted screenshots, for example. Taking a skeptical viewpoint, one could argue that Twitter is attempting to maximize its profits from its user base. In March, the company implemented API changes that could impose monthly costs of up to $42,000 on certain organizations. However, these actions, along with the introduction of Twitter Blue, do not seem to have made up for the advertising revenue lost since Musk assumed control. Limiting the number of tweets and ads users can view is unlikely to please the company's remaining clients.
