Twitter CEO Elon Musk made a significant announcement on Saturday imposing reading limits for posts on users.
In response to what he referred to as “extreme levels of data scraping” and “system manipulation” on the platform, Musk stated that Twitter users would face restrictions on the number of posts they can read per day.
While he assured users that these limitations are temporary, the extent of access varies based on account verification status.
Verified accounts, including Musk’s own executive chairman and CTO account, will retain relatively high privileges, allowing them to read up to 8,000 posts daily. Unverified accounts, on the other hand, will have a reduced allowance of 800 posts per day. Furthermore, new unverified accounts will face the most stringent limitations, with only 400 posts per day available for reading.
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Musk did not disclose a specific timeline for the removal of these restrictions. However, he did make a notable adjustment to the limits earlier on Saturday, potentially in response to the ongoing situation. This announcement comes amidst reports of widespread difficulties faced by thousands of users attempting to access Twitter on Saturday. It is worth noting that this is not the first occurrence of such extensive outages since Musk’s acquisition of the social media giant in late 2022.
Numerous users encountered obstacles when trying to access or post content through Twitter’s website or mobile app, with error messages displaying phrases such as “Rate limit exceeded” or “Cannot retrieve tweets.” Additionally, Twitter implemented a change where previously available content for non-account holders is now restricted, prompting immediate log-in requirements for those attempting to view public profiles and tweets.
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Musk expressed his concern about the “EXTREME” levels of data scraping through a tweet on Friday, emphasizing the need for “drastic and immediate action.” He assured users that the restrictions would soon be lifted, but as of Saturday afternoon, access to content remained limited, contradicting his initial statement.
While Saturday’s outage proved frustrating for many users, it is not an isolated incident. Twitter has been plagued by technical difficulties in recent months, including a period in February when users were unable to post for approximately 90 minutes due to exceeding the daily tweet limit. In March, users faced temporary challenges with link clicks and image loading.
As the Twitter community eagerly awaits further updates from Elon Musk and his team, it remains to be seen when normalcy will be restored to the platform and users can resume their regular social media activities without restrictions.